Steamboat Pilot & Today

Oak Creek — Soroco High School freshman Madison George scored 21 points and Sarajane Rossi chipped in 16 as the Rams easily ran past the Steamboat Springs junior varsity team, 58-38, on Tuesday night.

After leading by just 33-27 in the middle of the third quarter, the Rams turned the game into a track meet, using their defense to create easy buckets in transition.

Soroco closed out the third quarter on a 13-2 run to take a 46-29 lead into the fourth quarter.

"Yeah, they're getting better at the running game," Soroco coach David Bruner said. "They're not used to it yet. But that has to be our game. We're not very tall, so we have to attack the basket when we have the chance."

The Rams jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter before the Sailors responded. Steamboat went on a 9-4 run to close the gap to 15-9 at the end of the first quarter. The two teams traded baskets for most of the next quarter and a half, before Steamboat started to make a run.

But too many turnovers and an inability to stop the Rams transition game proved to be too much for the Sailors.

"Way too many turnovers and no transition defense," Steamboat coach Mack Spitellie said. "They finally settled down a little bit in the third quarter and ran the offense, and then they let that slip at the end. We just got too jittery at the end."

Tara Spitellie led the Sailors with 13 points while Katie Lettunich added 11.

For the Rams - who often had three freshmen and a sophomore on the court at the same time - the win moves them to 2-2 overall.

Bruner said he knows it's going to take time for the team to gel. With so many young parts, he said the real Soroco team might not show up until district play starts in January.

"When we use the whole floor and our spacing is good, we have success," he said. "When we're a little flustered, and that's the thing with young kids is they can get flustered, we struggle. But we'll get better with every game."

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com