Fort Lupton – Sendy Valles gives credit for her basketball skills to her father and brother.
But Roosevelt coach Randy Longoria deserves plenty of recognition as well.
Valles was all but unstoppable in the paint, with low-post moves that are not normally so polished in a freshman. That inside game led to 24 points for Valles and a 61-41 Roosevelt victory over Fort Lupton on Wednesday night.
But emotion got the best of Valles a time or two, and that’s when the coach stepped in, if only to have a quick chat with his new best player on the bench.
“Coach sat me down and told me to calm down, play my position and it will come to me. It came to me,” Valles said.
Roosevelt (10-2), No. 4 in The Denver Post/9News Class 3A poll, opened up a close game against 4A Fort Lupton (9-5) with a 10-0 run in the third quarter. Valles scored 12 points in that quarter, and she did it with finger rolls, drop-step moves in the paint and a soft shooting touch that can be overlooked by her powerful floor presence.
“Sendy has so many moves down there,” Longoria said. “She has great feet, great ball control, great body control. She’s a special kid.”
Megan Velasquez scored 12 points for the RoughRiders, and Alex Morford added 11 more.
For undersized Fort Lupton, which had nobody taller than 5-feet-8 listed on its roster, Jasmine Shaffer hit two 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 12 points, and Kate Herman Calvin scored 11 points.
Roosevelt jumped out to a 13-4 lead to open the game, but the Bluedevils pulled to within four points, 15-11, after one quarter of play. But Fort Lupton had difficulty controlling Valles and the other RoughRiders over the next two quarters as the Bluedevils were outscored 30-13 in the second and third.
“We fought hard. We never gave up, and we pride ourselves on that,” Shaffer said. “(Valles) is a good basketball player. We tried, but we just couldn’t get control of her.”
Morford extended the RoughRiders’ lead to 25 points with a 3-point shot in the fourth quarter. A minute later, Longoria put his bench players in the game.
Roosevelt 15 14 16 16 – 61
Fort Lupton 11 7 6 17 – 41
Roosevelt – Longoria 3 0-0 6, Velasquez 4 3-4 12, Morford 5 0-1 11, Kielian 0 0-0 0, Valles 12 0-2 24, Coleman 1 0-0 2, Anderson 0 0-0 0, Huny 2 0-0 4, Buckley 1 0-0 2, Spaur 0 0-0 0, Peavy 0 0-0 0, Treat 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 3-7 61.
Fort Lupton – McShane 4 0-0 8, Herman Calvin 4 2-4 11, Shultz 0 0-0 0, Shaffer 5 0-0 12, Witherby 3 0-0 6, Woodruff 0 0-0 0, Knodel 2 0-0 4. Totals 18 2-4 41.
3-pt. goals – Velasquez, Morford; Shaffer 2, Herman Calvin. Total fouls – Roosevelt 10; Fort Lupton 11. Fouled out – None. Technicals – None.
