FORT MORGAN — For the Longmont Christian Warriors, Friday’s Class 1A Region 2 playoff game in Fort Morgan will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Coach Dave Stoecker’s team was on the wrong end of a 58-33 loss to Briggsdale, but you can chalk it up to a learning experience for the Warriors who made it this far for the first time in the programs history.
“We played really well down he stretch,” said Stoecker, whose team gave unbeaten Jim Elliot all it could handle in the District 8 championship game last week. “We played our best ball in the last four games of the season, that included two playoff games.
“We just didn’t have it that way tonight and it is a tough way for our four seniors to go out.”
Stoecker, who got his team to Fort Morgan High School early to get used the much bigger gym, admitted that his team had some jitters but it didn’t show in the early going.
Longmont Christian (11-12), seeded No. 8 in the Region, stayed within shouting distance of the Falcons early on. Senior Anna Stair was able to get to the paint and hit driving lay-ups and knocked down the games only 3-pointer that kept it a two possession game after eight minutes.
But a 12-2 run to open the second quarter by Briggsdale (20-3) gave the Falcons all the cushion they would need. Senior Leilani Carrasco did most of the damage for Briggsdale, scoring eight of her 14 points in the quarter.
“None of the girls had ever played in this sort of environment before,” Stoecker said. “You could see it in the warm-ups too, some of them were almost jumping too high and just trying to be too strong.”
Carrasco and Darian Hale each finished with 14 points for the Falcons, who will draw Jim Elliot on Saturday for the right to move on to the Budweiser Events Center for the Class 1A state tournament. Jodel Erickson finished with 13 for Briggsdale.
Stair paced the Warriors with 10 points. Junior Maddie Lehnerr had nine and sophomore Abbey Moore-Kneipp had eight points in the losing effort.
“Our goal this summer will be working on the skills,” said Stoecker, who is confident his team can build on the successes of this season. “team camps really aren’t in our future, because it doesn’t serve us to go get beat a lot, so we just focus on the skills.”
Jon Yunt: yuntj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/JonEYunt
Briggsdale 58, Longmont Christian 33
At Fort Morgan
LONGMONT CHRISTIAN (11-12)
Sandra Cadena 0 0 0-0 0, Abbey Moore-Kneipp 4 0-0 8, Heidi Willis 0 0-0 0, Maddie Lehnerr 4 1-3 9, Makayla Gail 0 0-0 0, Anna Stair 4 1-2 10, Sarah Robbins 1 0-0 2, Grace Gunlikson 2 0-0 4, Andrea Willis 0 0-0 0, Sierra Fossey 0 0-0 0, Savannah Vrooman 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 2-5 33.
BRIGGSDALE (20-3)
Nikki Anderson 0 0-0 0, Skyla Miller 4 0-0 8, Jodel Erickson 6 1-2 13, Morgan Patton 0 0-0 0, Ashley Rueb 0 0-0 0, Leilah Johnson 0 0-0 0, Darian Hale 7 0-0 14, Leilani Carrasco 7 0-0 14, Ailaina Suppes 2 0-1 4, Brianne Schneider 2 1-2 5, Abree Klem 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 2-5 58.
Score by quarters:
Longmont Christian
9
8
7
9
—
33
Briggsdale
15
18
16
9
—
58
3-point field goals — Longmont Christian (1): Stair; Briggsdale (0): None. Total fouls — Longmont Christian 10; Briggsdale 9.
