No. 4 Ralston Valley girls hoops get bounce-back win over Legacy
ARVADA — Saya Sabus, Sydney Bevington and Brooklyn Seymour had RalstonValley’s girls basketball team on pace to reach 100 points Friday night.
The trio were all in double-figures through the first half, leading the Mustangs to a 47-15 halftime lead over Legacy. Ralston Valley — No. 4 in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A girls basketball preseason rankings — eventually slowed down offensively to cruise to a 62-30 victory.
“At practice a big emphasis was ball movement,” said Bevington, who led the Mustangs with 19 points and 10 rebounds. “We worked way better tonight.”
While the Mustangs (1-1 record) didn’t shoot particularly well — only 33 percent from the field and 2-for-17 from 3-point range — Ralston Valley dominated the boards with 42 rebounds that resulted in a lot of easy buckets in the paint.
“We played more like a team tonight,” said Seymour, who scored all of her 12 points in the first half before the Mustangs took their foot off the gas. “It was much better than our first game of the season. That gave we were just getting the rust off.”
Ralston Valley suffered a 72-61 season-opening loss to Windsor on Monday night.
The Mustangs turned it up defensively limiting the Lightning (0-2) to single-digit points in every quarter.
“We like to think we are a lot quicker so we try to apply as much pressure as we can,” Seymour said of the Mustangs’ defense that grabbed 17 steals on the night. “I think if we speed up the game that will help us in the long run.”
The long run will seem pretty short with the shortened 14-game regular season. The Mustangs do have an advantage with an experience senior core that has played together a lot over the years.
“Our team dynamic has always been good,” Bevington said of the experienced group. “Figuring out and navigating this season. We haven’t had a lot of practice, but we are figuring it out. Tonight felt really good.”
Longtime Ralston Valley coach Jeff Gomer sounded like a veteran coach after the game.
“We’ve got a lot of room for improvement,” Gomer said.
There isn’t nearly as much time as there is during a regular season to tune things to get ready for conference play. Figuring out and developing a bench rotation is something Gomer hasn’t been able to do with only a week of practices and two games under the Mustangs’ belt.
Ralston Valley opens 5A Jeffco League play on Monday, Feb. 1, on the road against No. 14 Lakewood (1-1). The Mustangs stay on the road to face No. 2 Valor Christian on Wednesday next week.
“My whole mindset is to get better fast and be ready for playoffs,” said Gomer, who added avoiding any kind of COVID-19 quarantine is key too. “You can’t have something happen where you miss five or six games and then you miss the playoffs. That could happen.”
