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FREDERICK >> Whether it’s Grandview’s Sienna Betts or Peak to Peak’s Alex Eschmeyer, high school girls basketball has proven itself elite in Colorado lately. Friday night’s high-velocity contest between Class 5A’s 10th-ranked Frederick and Class 4A’s fourth-ranked Holy Family showcased just why in a 60-55 home victory for the Golden Eagles.
From beginning to end, the Golden Eagles displayed the type of well-rounded play that any team would be envious of, from their lethal 3-point shooting to their wearing defense and kleptomania. Seniors Zoe Wittler and Rylee Gallegos spread out the floor to score 14 apiece.
The Tigers, the lone 4A team in a tough multi-classification Granite Peaks League, were scrappy as ever.
Every time they looked like they were falling out of contention, they tightened their own, unforgiving full-court press and pulled themselves out of the trenches.
Junior point guard Gracie Ward led the field with 15 points — 12 of which came behind the arc — as fellow junior Alexcia Oaxaca complemented her with 13 of her own.
“It just supports women’s basketball in Colorado, how much it’s grown,” Ward said. “It was great to play here. It’s great for us, great learning moments. I mean, this environment, this is what we’re going to experience when we get to that Coliseum (for the Great 8).”
Frederick blitzed out to an early 17-2 lead, controlling the pace and forcing the Tigers to play on their heels, even as they were trying to break through the ice that defined their first quarter of action. Holy Family found its spark before halftime rolled around, closing that gap to just four points at 35-31.
No matter what fire that the Tigers threw on the floor, the Golden Eagles were just a little bit hotter. It came through strong perimeter shooting, good ball movement, accurate free throw shooting and aggression on the glass. Ward’s defense was as suffocating as ever.
When the scoreboard read 59-50 in Frederick’s favor with 1 minute, 54 seconds to go, the Tigers defense started to cause chaos. They pulled within four points, 59-55, but missed key foul shots down the stretch that would have threatened to put them in overtime territory.
“(Girls basketball is) here, we came to play, and now it’s time for you to look at us,” Ward said of the performance from both teams. “We have a chip on our shoulder, not just as Holy Family, but just women’s basketball as a whole. We have not gotten the credit we deserve in my opinion, and everybody around the state has stepped up and proven that we deserve to be here.”
The win came as a much-needed relief for the Golden Eagles, who just last week suffered a blistering loss to Mead (54-19). They improved to 10-5 with a 4-2 record in GPL play and will head to Monarch next on Tuesday.
Holy Family fell to 7-5 (2-3) and will hit the road to Fairview on the same night.
“In practice, we’ve been working really hard, just on all the little things we’re doing right,” Wittler said. “After our tough loss against Mead, we had a discussion, like, what could we do better? This week in practice, we’ve been really focusing on just the little things, like boxing out. We have a focus every drill, so it might be boxing out and if we don’t box out, it’s five push-ups or something like that. It helps us keep ourselves accountable.”