Merino girls hoops ends December with a bang
Another day, another way for Merino girls basketball to claim victory.
That, at least, has been the theme of the Rams’ season to date, as each of their first five games of the 202324 season have kept opponents searching for ways to avoid defeat, much to no avail. The Rams have yet to lose a game after five tries.
They began their season with a 42-24 victory over Flatirons Academy, which has seen no shortage of success itself in recent years, before moving on to blast Simla with a 52-33 score.
Prairie provided even less of a challenge in the first round of the NJC Holiday Basketball Tournament Thursday.
The Rams began that game firing on all cylinders, scoring 16 points in the first quarter while keeping the Mustang offense at bay with just five points. They ballooned that advantage even more in the second frame, netting 23 points to Prairie’s three, then just kept Prairie’s defensive wound wide open at the start of the second half.
The Rams continued to far outpace the Mustangs in the third quarter as Merino put up another 21 points while containing Prairie to just a single, 2-point field goal. They ended their offensive effort then and there, as they didn’t score a single point in the fourth quarter but allowed another four from Prairie.
Merino advanced through the tournament Friday with a 54-42 victory over Akron, this time having to make a bit of a comeback early on.
Akron began the contest with the upper hand, outshining the Merino offense 13-11 in the first eight minutes of play, only to see Merino shift the tides irrevocably in its favor in the second quarter. Merino sank 16 points to Akron’s 10, handing it the 27-23 lead at the half.
Merino just kept building on it from there on out.
Merino put up 10 points to Akron’s seven in the third quarter to keep them just within arm’s length, but threw it out of contention in the final frame when they netted 17 points to Akron’s 12.
The Rams girls wrapped up their December portion of the season with the tournament championship game against Sedgwick County Saturday. Merino turned a 19-15 lead at the half into a 50-33 victory before heading into a well-deserved rest.
Merino, now 5-0, will return to action on Jan. 5 at Wray.