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Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School girls basketball team is up against a wall.

In addition to final exams taking place at the high school, Steamboat will have played two - if not three - of the top teams in the Western Slope League by Saturday.

After losing to top league contender Moffat County, 62-19, on Tuesday, Steamboat now faces games at Rifle, at 6 p.m. today and at home against Glenwood Springs at 4 p.m. Saturday.

"It's tough," Steamboat coach John Ameen said. "Always, coming back from break, you have a good amount of practice. Finals week is the big thing. But you got to do what you got to do and take care of business. They might be mentally tired, but they shouldn't be physically."

Before the holiday break, the Sailors showed marked improvement from game to game. Ameen said whether it was rust or just regressing, Steamboat didn't look like a team on the upswing against Moffat County.

He said the Sailors came out hesitant and struggled to execute on either end of the floor.

"We didn't come out doing things correctly," Ameen said. "These next two games, it has to be better as far as execution, both offensively and defensively."

Rifle and Glenwood Springs come into the games with similar styles of trying to get to the basket and posting up players.

Ameen said the heavy emphasis this week has been on defensive rotations and not giving up easy shots.

Today "should be a good gauge of where we're at as far as what we're doing execution-wise," Ameen said.

Playing well today against Rifle should give Steamboat confidence against Glenwood, a team that's expected to battle Moffat County for the top spot in the league.

"It's important to get that confidence back and play like we did before break," Ameen said. "Granted, we weren't pleased with before break, but we were making strides. Then against Moffat, we hit a wall. Now that we have a game under our belt after break, it's not only getting better for Glenwood, but for the rest of the league games."

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229

or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com