GREELEY — The great thing about exhibition basketball is that it doesn’t matter where you come from. If you can play, that’s all that matters.
Wiley’s Sandra Morales came to Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion and the 54th annual Colorado High School Coaches Association All-State Games wondering if she would fit in and contribute.
She did.
The Trinidad State-bound Morales scored 11 points Saturday, helping the Red team defeat the Blue 67-64.
“Having all this amazing talent around, and putting it all together, was fun,” said Morales, whose Red team was coached by Sand Creek’s Autumn Sereno and Summer Coombs. “I really didn’t know what to expect, but we all just put it together and it worked.”
The Red team’s victory spoiled Paonia’s reunion. The Class 2A champions had their coach — Scott Rienks — on the Blue team’s sideline as well as three players on the roster, including The Denver Post’s Class 2A Ms. Basketball, Jordyn Rienks.
The Paonia trio of Rienks, Grayson Pipher and Johanna Reed combined to score 21 points. Pipher contributed 17.
“For me to get one last chance with all these girls was awesome,” Scott Rienks said. “A lot of people don’t get this chance. So, yeah, it was fun.”
The Blue team took the lead for the first time late in the third quarter and should have had the momentum going to the fourth. But the Red team, fueled by the leadership of Brush’s Alicia Nichols, stayed within reach.
With the Red team ahead 65-64 and with 9.4 seconds to play, the Blue team was called for an intentional foul that gave Nichols two free throws — she made them — and the ball back.
“You would think in the spirit of an All-State Game, you’d let a lot of things go and let the kids play and that wouldn’t be called,” Scott Rienks said.
Nichols finished with 12 points, leading the Red team. LaRona Mondt of Briggsdale and Cara Walderman of Conifer each contributed eight points.
In addition to Pipher’s 17 points, the Blue team got 11 from Hi-Plains’ Beth Cooper and 10 from Sammi Gentile of Salida.
Blue 7 22 22 13 — 64
Red 14 17 16 20 — 67
Blue — Bard (Wray) 3 0-0 6, Cooper (Hi-Plains) 5 1-2 11, Gentile (Salida) 3 4-6 10, Luyombya (The Academy) 1 1-2 3, Pipher (Paonia) 6 3-6 17, Reed (Paonia) 0 2-2 2, Rienks (Paonia) 1 0-0 2, Strong (Dove Creek) 0 4-4 4, Vanderpool (Grand Valley) 3 2-4 9. Totals 22 17-26 64.Red — Blake (Wiggins) 1 0-0 2, Hill (Briggsdale) 0 1-2 1, Irwin (Peyton) 2 2-2 6, May (Stratton) 2 2-2 6, Mondt (Briggsdale) 2 3-3 8, Morales (Wiley) 5 1-2 11, Nichols (Brush) 4 4-5 12, Shaffer (Fort Lupton) 1 3-4 6, Smith (Holyoke) 3 0-2 7, Walderman (Conifer) 3 1-2 8. Totals 23 17-24 67.3-point goals — Pipher 2, Vanderpool; Mondt, Shaffer, Smith, Walderman. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None.
