Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — It's a good thing John Daschle's girlfriend dumped him a couple of nights before the Glenwood Springs game.

"I played like crap when I had a girlfriend," he said.

On Friday night, girlfriendless, Daschle scored 20 points to lead the Sailors to a 66-52 home victory over the Demons.

Even Steamboat Springs coach Kelly Meek acknowledged his senior shooting star had more focus.

"It's good to see him back," Meek said. "He's been struggling, but he played with a lot more passion tonight."

The rest of the Sailors squad seemed to be intensely focused as well, shooting superbly from all over the court.

"Unselfish passing really opened it up for us," Meek said. "They were so spread out in the zone defense, we had to move the ball around a lot. When we did, we got some really good looks."

Sailor Corey Moore got many of those looks, scoring 13 points in the second half and contributing on defense with two steals.

Overall defensively, the Sailors were also dominant. Sophomore Cameron Burney blocked three shots, while the rest of the team grabbed loose balls and crashed the boards.

After opening the second quarter with a 13-2 run, Steamboat had a commanding 27-16 halftime lead.

After the Demons got within nine points of the lead in the third, the Sailors turned up the heat in the fourth quarter, going on an 11-0 run and gaining their largest lead of the game with 21 points.

Contributing the most points for Glenwood was senior Timon Fish with 18 points.

Overall, though, the Demons struggled on offense. More than a couple of layups rolled out of the rim, and the Sailors were right there grabbing the rebounds.

With the victory, the Sailors improved their record to 12-6 overall, 6-5 in the league. They play their last game of the regular season at 7:30 p.m. at Rifle High School.