Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Midway through the third quarter, Eagle Valley’s Tim Wells tried to throw a pass into the paint, but it slammed off the floor, over the rim and through the net.

It was an impressive enough feat to draw applause from all corners of Kelly Meek Gym­nasium in Steamboat Springs, but not nearly enough to do away with the home court Sailors, who cruised to a 66-51 victory Saturday.

“We found a flow in our offense, and we set the tempo,” Steamboat’s Eric Trousil said. “We locked down and kept our fundamentals good.”

Steamboat took control of the game from the start, building a 17-4 lead that the Devils, despite better play later in the game, could not come close to overcoming.

Charles Wood, Isiah Men­doza-Forsyth and Justin Ander­son all buried 3-point shots in the first part of the first quarter, helping open up the big lead.

“We decided to completely ignore the scouting report on Steamboat, which was that they were going to shoot 3s and they were going to make them,” Eagle Valley coach Brent McConaghy said. “You just can’t overcome a deficit like that.”

Eagle Valley managed just one field goal and two free throws in the first quarter.

“We’re fully capable of building leads like that,” Trousil said. “We know our potential, and we can be a really good team. Sometimes, we have lapses, and we need to fight through those to be the best team we can be.”

Wood led Steamboat through the game, finishing with a game-high 22 points. Justin Anderson also came up big, scoring 13.

A late-game surge by the Devils kept things from getting boring, however.

Eagle Valley twice had opportunities to cut Steamboat’s lead to single digits in the fourth quarter. One possession resulted in a turnover, however, the ball quickly was whisked down to Wood for a layup. The Devils’ Cooper Senn later scored to cut it to 10 and drew a foul. He couldn’t sink the free throw, however, and Steamboat added several late scores to again pull away.

“We started closing out the 3s better, and we decided we had the ability to go inside, and we started doing that,” McConaghy said. “We just couldn’t overcome that deficit, though.”

Jesse Gish led Eagle Valley with 16 points. With the win, Steamboat improved to 7-6 and 2-1 in the league. Eagle Valley dropped to 5-8 and 2-2.

Game statistics

STEAMBOAT BOYS 66, EAGLE VALLEY 51

Eagle Valley 6-13-13-19 — 51

Steamboat 17-15-15-19 — 66

Eagle Valley — James VanDyke 1 1-2 3, Tim Wells 4 2-2 10, Jesse Martinez 0 2-4 2, Jesse Gish 6 3-4 16, Sam Lounsberry 5 0-0 11, Cooper Senn 3 1-3 7, Mervin Vargas 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 9-16 51.

Steamboat — Isiah Mendoza-Forsyth 3 1-3 8, Kit Croop 4 1-4 9, Randall Nelson 1 1-2 3, Justin Anderson 4 4-4 13, Charles Wood 7 6-6 22, Eric Trousil 1 5-7 7, Jake Miller 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 18-25 66.

3-pointers: Eagle Valley (2) — Lounsberry, Gish. Steamboat (4) – Wood 2, Mendoza-Forsyth, Anderson.