LAFAYETTE — Apparently, there is life after Carli, Quincey and Jamie.
The Legacy girls basketball team continued to prove it Tuesday with an emphatic 69-31 win against Wheat Ridge in the first round of the Boulder Valley Invitational at Centaurus High School.
The No. 9 Lightning (3-0) is coming off an appearance in the Class 5A championship game, where it lost by four points to East. But all-state first-team selection Carli Moreland graduated along with Gatorade state player of the year Quincey Noonan, and coach Jamie Carey departed to accept a position with USA Basketball.
Legacy has rolled early in the season behind athletic 6-foot-2 post Sade Akindele and sharpshooting junior Kailey Edwards, erasing doubts that the Lightning was going to disappear into the scrap heap.
“That was the perception with us losing two D-I girls and our coach,” said Lightning first-year coach Craig Van Patten, who spent nine years with the program as an assistant. “But Kailey is a great scorer, Sade is a beast down there and we’re as deep as we’ve been in my 10 years here.”
Akindele scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while Emily Glen added 13 points and reserve Caitlin Smith 11.
“I think we’re still a force to be reckoned with,” Akindele said. “We lost some notable players, but I don’t think it will take too long for us to get back where we were.”
Two key sequences decided this one. Legacy quickly fell behind 6-0 but outscored the Farmers 20-2 to close the first quarter, a burst capped by Edwards’ four-point play. Then, leading by 10 at the half, Legacy blanked Wheat Ridge 15-0 in the third.
“It was a combination of things, but it came down to that we just aren’t conditioned enough yet,” said Farmers coach Heather McAdams, whose team was playing its first game of the season. “We ran out of juice.”
Wheat Ridge, which competes in 4A, went 19-7 last season but is looking to retool after the graduation of three starters.
Junior guard Antonia Land had nine points for the Farmers.
Of note for the Farmers, junior Elle Madsen sat out the game to serve a one-game suspension for being ejected from her team’s softball finale.
Wheat Ridge 8 14 0 9 — 31
Legacy 20 12 15 22 — 69
Wheat Ridge — Gearhart 2 3-4 8, Wirth 1 0-2 2, Land 1 6-12 9, Wilkie 0 6-6 6, Mefford 1 2-2 4, Huckaby 0 0-1 0, Abeyta 0 2-2 2. Totals 5 19-29 31.
Legacy — Glen 4 3-4 13, Archuleta 0 0-1 0, Edwards 2 3-5 8, Dunahay 2 0-0 4, Akindele 7 4-9 18, Smith 5 1-3 11, Eisler 1 0-0 2, Torrez 1 0-0 2, Salaz 2 0-0 6, Neely 2 0-0 5. Totals 26 11-22 69.
3-pt. goals — Gearhart, Land; Glen 2, Salaz 2, Edwards, Neely. Total fouls — Wheat Ridge 16, Legacy 21. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None.
