Senior scores nine in showcase loss
All too familiar with taking a squad to the State Championships, 3A Pagosa Springs’ longtime skipper Wes Lewis indicated after a late-season showdown with 2A Ignacio that IHS’ Avionne Gomez was the sort of ’baller which could lift a team from great to even greater heights.
“Avionne, you know, she’s a good player,” he stated. “She is a really tough guard.”
Though only in his first season as head coach, Ignacio’s Trae Seibel wasn’t surprised when his senior shooting guard, also capable of orchestrating matters from the point, helped the Lady Bobcats return to State as the school’s first girls’ roster to ever join one of its boys’ in making the trip.
“You know, Avionne’s a special kid,” Seibel said. “I’ve coached her since she was in sixth grade, and for the jump that she’s made to where she’s at right now, I’m so proud of her. Being our senior captain, she gave us every opportunity to win, and I’m just proud of her.”
Stoked to have seen Gomez sink one final trademark three-pointer inside the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland as the San Juan Basin League’s champs finished 21-4 overall, Seibel was present to see her do so again Sunday, March 18, at the 2018 Colorado Coaches of Girls’ Sports All-State Games.
Suiting up for the Class 2A ‘Blue’ crew, Gomez sank one trey and two free throws during the fourth quarter of a 50-44 loss to the ‘Red’ team, and finished with nine points. Only Simla’s Jerraldawn Rector, who canned three triples, scored more for the side as she totaled 17. Fowler’s Elizabeth Hagerman chipped in eight.
Megan Roberts of Greeley-based Dayspring Christian led the victors with 14 points. Ault Highland’s Maison Tolle joined her in double figures with ten, and Evergreen Clear Creek’s Grace Werlin logged nine.
Coached by FHS’ Mark Van Sickle and Jim Goff, the Blues fell behind 15-7 after one quarter inside Arvada West H.S. Gymnasium, scraped back to 23-20 at halftime, but still trailed 36-32 entering the fourth frame – in which the Reds (under Dayspring’s Tina Beauvais and Dave Roberts) drilled three vital three-pointers.
Gomez was a CHSAANow.com/ColoradoPreps.com/MaxPreps Honorable Mention All-2A choice [Rector earned Second Team status and Roberts First Team], but the All-SJBL Team had not been reported by press time.