ARVADA — They didn’t know what to expect. Arvada West’s girls had little knowledge of Thornton and experienced previous trouble in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament, so the Wildcats hoped to decide it early and move on to another round.
In running to a large lead early, A-West took care of its business and set a program mark Wednesday night with a 63-24 rout of Thornton.
The Wildcats improved to 20-4, a benchmark for victories. And they advanced to Saturday’s second round, when they will be at Fort Collins for a 3 p.m. tipoff.
“We didn’t know,” Wildcats senior Emily Chenoweth said. “But it’s exciting.”
A-West coach Tim Slabach confessed to being his usual apprehensive self, but his fears were quickly put aside as his team buried Thornton (13-11) early and often.
“I’m a worrywart anyway and we have a history of coming out in that first game and not performing,” Slabach said. “(The Trojans) won 13 games and (coach Stevie Ferreira) does a nice job and they play quick and hard. I was just hoping that we’d do what we do right, and then we’d be OK.”
The Wildcats were OK from the opening tip. A-West received eight points in the first quarter from Chenoweth, who led her team with 11 overall, and raced to a 13-0 lead. The Trojans, who dressed only three seniors, were guilty of turnovers on eight of their first nine possessions.
Not even frequent substitution by Slabach or two brief power outages that darkened the gymnasium down the stretch could stop the Wildcats, who used pressure early to rattled the Trojans.
“We’re up and we got other players in there,” Slabach said in clearing his bench. And despite his team’s various lulls, “in every game they did something to win us a game.
“We don’t know much about Fort Collins, but it’s in a tough (Front Range) League, so just don’t look at (the Lambkins’ 15-8) record.”
Thornton: 6 7 7 4 — 24
Arvada West: 23 13 14 13 — 63
Thornton: Ra. Casteneda 6 0-0 14, Trujillo 0 0-0 0, Perez-Robles 0 0-0 0, Northway 4 0-0 8, Re. Casteneda 1 0-0 2, Trujillo 0 0-2 2, Loera 0 0-0 0, Lucero-Gallegos 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 0-2 24.
Arvada West: Christopher 3 0-0 6, Chenoweth 4 0-0 11, Marquez 2 0-2 5, Hendrickson 4 0-0 8, Novotny 4 0-0 9, White 3 1-2 7, Pickett 0 1-3 1, Glassmeyer 1 0-0 2, Waters 3 0-0 9, Larrabee 2 0-0 5, Taylor 0 0-0 0. Totals: 26 2-7 63.
3-point goals: Ra. Casteneda 2; Chenoweth 3, Waters 3, Larrabee, Marquez, Novotny. Fouled out: Re. Casteneda.
