Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times
After winning 10 of 12 games during the heart of the season, the Aspen High School boys basketball team hit a wall. It started with a surprising 33-24 loss to Roaring Fork on Feb. 1, followed by a 59-45 loss at Moffat County, a 53-39 loss at Cedaredge and a 66-58 loss at Coal Ridge.
A 60-51 win at Delta on Feb. 15 in their last official regular-season game got the Skiers out of their funk.
“You see our record and you see that slump we went through with those four losses and that loss, against Coal Ridge, was finally our first uptick in two weeks up to that point,” AHS coach Alex Schrempf said following Thursday’s win over Basalt.
After dispatching the Longhorns on Thursday, a game that won’t officially go on the records because of an overscheduling mistake on Aspen’s part, AHS now enters the postseason looking to start a new winning streak. As the No. 7 seed in the district tournament, Aspen (11-8) will host No. 10 Cedaredge (4-15) at 2 p.m. Saturday inside the AHS gymnasium.
The Bruins’ lone league win this season was that Feb. 11 win over AHS during the Skiers’ four-game skid. However, Aspen also hosted Cedaredge on Jan. 17 in a non-league contest, cruising to a 66-45 win.
Meaning it’s anyone’s guess on what happens Saturday.
“We made it our goal this season to have a winning season,” AHS senior Aidan Ledingham said Thursday after rolling Basalt. “Confidence is good, but we can’t underestimate any team. We just got to come in there and play 100% like we did today.”
The winner of Saturday’s game between Aspen and Cedaredge will advance to the district quarterfinal, likely to be played Tuesday, against No. 2 seed Coal Ridge (14-5). The Titans will host that game.
The tournament’s No. 1 seed, Gunnison, will await the winner of Saturday’s other play-in game between No. 9 Olathe (3-16) and No. 8 Basalt (4-14). The Longhorns will host that game, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday inside the BHS gymnasium.
BHS and Olathe played as recently as Feb. 14, Basalt cruising to a 60-38 win.
No. 5 Delta at No. 4 Moffat County and No. 6 Roaring Fork at No. 3 Grand Valley will make up the other two district quarterfinal games next week.
BASALT GIRLS basketball TO HOST ASPEN SATURDAY at 1 PM
It’ll be Round 3 between the Basalt girls basketball team and Aspen on Saturday. As the No. 7 seed in the district tournament, BHS (8-9) will host No. 10 AHS (3-16) at 1 p.m. in Basalt. The Longhorns won 49-14 when the teams played Thursday in Aspen; BHS also won 52-21 on Jan. 28 in Basalt.
The Longhorn girls also hosted Aspen in the district play-in game last season, winning 44-12.
The winner on Saturday will move on to face No. 2 Cedaredge in the district quarterfinals. No. 8 Olathe and No. 9 Gunnison is the other play-in game, with the winner moving on to face No. 1 Delta.
The other girls district quarterfinal games are No. 4 Roaring Fork against No. 5 Coal Ridge and No. 3 Grand Valley against No. 6 Moffat County.
BASALT WRESTLERS FALL IN STATE QUARTERFINALS
The title dreams ended Friday for both of Basalt High School’s wrestlers at the Class 3A state tournament at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Senior heavyweight Ernesto Lopez, who needed only 38 seconds to pin his opening-round opponent on Thursday, lost to Eaton’s Tanner True (fall, 4:57) in the quarterfinals.
Lopez did bounce back in the playbacks by beating James Irwin’s Kyle Good (fall, 2:19) to keep his podium hopes alive.
At 170 pounds, Basalt junior Ruben Samuelson — who attends Roaring Fork High School — lost in the quarterfinals to Woodland Park’s Cole Gray (fall, 3:08). Samuelson also answered by beating Elizabeth’s Koby Ullery (fall, 0:31) in the playbacks.
The state tournament will conclude Saturday.
ASPEN HOCKEY HEADS TO GLENWOOD SPRINGS FOR SATURDAY’S FINALE
The Aspen High School hockey team will close out its regular season Saturday night with a 7 p.m. game at Glenwood Springs (11-5-2). The teams met once earlier this season, AHS winning 4-3 on Jan. 10 in Aspen.
At 3-10-3 overall, the Skiers are sitting right on the bubble of making the state playoff bracket, which is expected out Sunday or Monday.