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Moffat County girls basketball trounces Aspen in 2014 opener

Nate Waggenspack
Allie Ehlers puts up a shot amid a sea of Aspen defenders Saturday in Aspen. Moffat County beat the Skiers, 72-27, to improve to 4-2 this season.
Nate Waggenspack

In their return to the court, Moffat County girls basketball didn’t miss a beat.

Moffat County used a zone press to force Aspen mistakes and capitalized in transition to build an early lead. They went on to win, 72-27, and improved to 4-2 this season and 2-1 in the Western Slope League.

The Bulldogs sat in the zone and intercepted Aspen passes to create easy opportunities on offense, instead of the on-ball pressure that has been their calling card more often. The new strategy worked, as they led 21-6 after a quarter and made it 37-10 by halftime.



“We’re good at picking passes off,” sophomore Morgan Lawton said. “We read them really well. That’s the first time we’ve ran it in a game and it worked.”

Lawton had 15 points for Moffat County to go along with 17 from Cheianne Pinnt. She was a force in the paint, pulling down offensive boards and showing off post moves that were too much for the Skiers (0-7) to handle.



“We did well with rebounding and putting it back up,” Lawton said. “And our defense was pretty good all game.”

It was a win head coach Matt Ray expected to get but he still was happy with the team’s intensity in building a lead.

“Sometimes it’s hard to come out and play the way you need to against a team like them,” he said. “I thought we came out and got into foul trouble and backed off a bit. But Cheianne Pinnt was aggressive the entire game, and that’s why she had a big game for us.”

Moffat County spread out its playing time across the roster in the second half and maintained a comfortable margin even as Aspen’s offense put more points up.

The Bulldogs are in fourth place in the WSL after the win but haven’t played as many league games as other teams. They have two key games coming up at Basalt and Cedaredge next weekend. If they play like they did Saturday, Lawton thinks more wins are on the way.

“I just want us to stick with the pumped up attitude we had today,” she said.

Contact Nate Waggenspack at 970-875-1795 or nwaggenspack@craigdailypress.com.


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