When you go 20-2 during the regular season, you might expect a little love from the seeding committee.
Not so for the St. Mary’s girls basketball team. The Pirates, whose only losses were to Class 5A Arapahoe and in Saturday’s Tri-Peaks League championship game to Colorado Springs Christian, were not rewarded with one of the top eight seeds and will travel this first weekend of the Class 3A girls basketball tournament.
“I feel a little bit slighted, but I understand,” said St. Mary’s coach Mike Burkett, who starts an experienced group of four seniors. “It would have been nice to have our fans and community there backing us on our home court. Pagosa will have both their boys’ and girls’ crowds there and we are just going to have to overcome that.”
Before St. Mary’s, the third seed in the eight-team Sheila Quillan-Thompson Region, has a chance at Pagosa Springs, it will have to get through Cedaredge (13-9). Pagosa’s Pirates (17-5) play Holy Family (13-10).
“I’m nervous about everything this time of year,” said Burkett, whose team has adopted a “no excuses, no regrets” slogan for the playoffs. “This is a very deep field, and I think there are 10-12 teams that can get hot and win it.”
One of those is Platte Valley. The Broncos (19-4), led by player-of-the-year candidate Alison Cheney, made the trip to Fort Collins (site of the final eight) last season, but suffered an early exit.
“She has played amazing all year long. And having (former 3A player of the year) Stevie (Hagemeister) gone, she has really stepped up her game both on and off the court,” Platte Valley coach Terri DeJong said. “The past few years she was playing out of position at point guard, and since moving to shooting guard, the game has really opened up for her and she has taken on the scoring role.”
Platte Valley will open up with Lutheran (10-13) in the first round of the John Mraule Region. The winner will play Kent Denver (12-11) or Manitou Springs (15-7).
Another team that lost a league title game this past weekend was Centauri. The Falcons (19-1) dropped the Intermountain League title game to Pagosa Springs, but still earned the right to host.
“It was better to lose on Saturday than anytime in the upcoming weeks,” said Centauri coach Dave Forster, whose team will host Ellicott (10-12) on Friday. “The loss seemed to really focus us, because we’ve have good practices since.”
Amanda Gylling, Lacey Cooley and Janette McCarroll have been the go-to players and Lucia Muniz has played well late in the season. A banged up Lisa McCarroll sat out the Pagosa game, and hopes to be back for this weekend’s play in the Anita Stites-Rowland Region.
Second-seeded Roaring Fork (16-6) and No. 3 St. Mary’s Academy (16-7) are on a collision course on the bottom half of the bracket.
Patriot League champion Eaton (20-3) earned the top seed in the Michelle Bostrom Region and will host Peak to Peak (11-10). C.S. Christian (19-3) and Basalt (18-3) round out the top three teams in the region.
