GOLDEN — Pueblo West teammates Dee Arrieta and Haley Simental are three years apart, but Saturday they connected as if they’d been playing together for their youth.
Simental, the freshman, calmly sank four straight free throws in the final 34.5 seconds to break a tie game and send the Cyclones into the Class 4A semifinals with a 53-47 Great 8 win over Golden at Lockridge Arena.
The final two — with 30.1 seconds remaining — came after Arrieta, a senior, stole the Demons’ in-bounds pass and dished the ball to Simental, who drew a foul.
“It’s amazing,” Arrieta said after West, the No. 1 seed in the Lou Piel Region, hung on against No. 6 seed Golden. “Haley’s a freshman and I feel real comfortable with her.”
Nervous on those final four free throws?
“A little bit,” said Simental, who finished 6-of-7 from the foul line and scored 12 points. “But it always gets me focused.”
“I wasn’t nervous one bit,” said Cyclones coach Mike Wilkinson. “I know she can fill it up.”
Arrieta (14 points) made 2-of-4 free throws in the final 17.8 seconds to help seal the win for West (23-3), but her steal of Golden’s in-bounds pass might have been the biggest play of the game.
“I happened to be in the right spot at the right time,” Arrieta said. “I knew I had to get the ball out of the corner, and I just threw it to Haley.”
Golden (18-9) lost for the first time in six games under interim coach Mike Mendoza, the junior varsity coach who moved up when Joe Bahl resigned during the 4A Jefferson County League Tournament.
The Demons rallied from a 17-6 deficit in the first quarter and were tied at 39 early in the fourth when 6-foot-2 sophomore center Haley Blodgett went to the bench after picking up her third foul. Blodgett scored 11 of her 13 points in the second and third quarters, keying the Demons’ upset bid while leading scorer Kylie Santos struggled.
The Cyclones took advantage of her absence, building a 47-39 lead before Santos got hot and Blodgett returned with 2:07 left.
Santos (team-high 17 points) hit back-to-back 3-pointers sandwiched by a missed free throw on a one-and-one by Simental, and Blodgett added a jumper from top-left of the key to tie it at 47-47 with 52 seconds remaining.
But the turnover after Simental’s two made free throws and three missed treys ended Golden’s hopes.
