No. 9 Grand Junction Central girls hoops beats Montrose

MONTROSE – The ninth-ranked Grand Junction girls basketball team made the trip over to Montrose on Tuesday night and left for home with a victory in hand.

Still unbeaten on the road this season, the Grand Junction Central Warriors (13-1) put together a 39-32 victory over Montrose (9-7) and are now 13-1 overall.

“My girls didn’t shoot very well, but enough to win,” Central head coach coach Mary Doane said. “It’s always hard to play in Montrose. They are very physical.”

The teams went back and forth in the first quarter, with the visiting Warriors leading 8-4 to start the second. Montrose took its first lead at 10-9 early in the second quarter and hung around with the Warriors, hitting a buzzer-beater just before halftime to cut Central’s lead to 18-15.

Leading 26-22 after three quarters, the Warriors scored five in a row and led by as many as eight on their way to a seven-point victory.

“I was proud of the energy and effort that we came out with tonight against a very good

Central team,” Montrose coach Steve Skiff said. “I thought our defensive effort was really good and we were just not able to get enough shots to drop tonight.”

Krystyna Manzanarez had a team-high 13 points for the Warriors. Brynn Wagner had nine and Sasha Rascon had six.

Taygen Rocco led Montrose, which now has a 9-7 record after Tuesday’s loss, with 11 points. Josie Coulter had eight and Taylor Yanosky had four.

Montrose will host Durango on Saturday. Grand Junction Central will be at home against Eagle Valley on Thursday.