Sports

The Granada girls’ basketball team is heading back to the state tournament after a long hiatus of 23 years. The last time they went to state was in 2000 when they were the state runner-up to Cheraw.

The Kit Carson Girls basketball program is a story of tremendous tradition and success. Out of the past 12 seasons, and even during COVID, the Lady Wildcats have clawed their way to 9 state tournaments.

The Class 1A District 2 Tournament held last weekend was one for the record books as being exceptionally competitive. Basketball fans across the region filled the gyms each night in order to watch some of the finest boys’ basketball in the state.

It’s always been pounded into every athlete’s head that ‘defense wins championships’ and for the McClave Lady Cardinals their defense has paid off in a huge way with a perfect, undefeated season (21-0) and a top-berth in this weekend’s Regional tournament.

The Eads Eagles entered the very competitive District 2 tournament seeded #5 and facing off against the eventual tournament champions, Granada, who was seeded #4 and proved to be the best 13-8 team in the state. Although Eads had Granada right where they wanted them in the District 2 quarterfinals on Tuesday in La Junta, the Bobcats found a way to slip back in the game and clipped Eads’ wings at the very end, 50-47.

The Kit Carson boys’ program has battled through the season losing the bulk of their games while playing one of the toughest schedules in the state.

The McClave Boys continue to roll along as the regular season starts to ebb to a close. With a couple of weeks to go until the District Tournaments, the Cardinals have secured their Hi-Plains League championship after defeating Kit Carson on Thursday night at The Jim, 79-52.

Eads was on the road over the weekend and came out with mixed results getting a win over South Baca, 56-28, but coming away with a loss in a much-needed game over conference foe Cheyenne Wells, 42-40.

The undefeated McClave Lady Cardinals (13-0) had just one opponent over the weekend when they welcomed the Eads Eagles (7-7) to the Cardinal Nest. McClave used a smothering defense to jump out to a 17-5 first quarter lead to eventually win the conference contest, 44-23.

The Kit Carson girls had been somewhat struggling in the middle part of the season although, for the most part, they have won most of their games. But the 10-4 Wildcats upped their game over the past weekend as they grabbed a key Hi-Plains conference win over Cheraw, 50-20, and then learned how to fight their way against an aggressive defense when they won in overtime in Idalia against the very athletic Wolverines, 39-35.

The Eads boys’ basketball team is quickly becoming a team to reckon with as on Friday night they played McClave, one of the best teams in Colorado 1A ball, to a tight game going into the fourth quarter eventually losing that contest to the 10-3 Cards, 63-49. Then on Saturday night they shocked the much bigger and very athletic Wiley Panther team winning on the Eads court, 58-53, in one of the more exciting games the area has seen in some years.

It’s time for Regional Wrestling across the state of Colorado. The local County Line Rivals, consisting of area wrestlers from Cheyenne Wells, Eads, Wiley, and McClave are well-prepared to represent well at the coveted state-qualifying event.

Last Friday Cheyenne Wells traveled to Granada for a Hi-Plains League basketball game filled with competitive play with both girls’ and boys’ teams giving it all they could in order to get the win as the regular season quickly winds down.

The Eads boys grabbed two wins over the weekend and extended their record to 6-6 on the season. However, a much more important stat is they won a key conference game in OT, 42-35, over Cheraw giving Eads a 2-0 record in the tough Hi-Plains conference.

It was a long haul for the Eads girls over the weekend as they found themselves on the oftentimes snowy and foggy road. But that didn’t slow them down as they continue to improve—particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

The Cheyenne Wells girls had been struggling with some injury and illness for the past few weeks, but over the weekend some positive gains were made when they grabbed two exciting wins—both of which were on the road.