They were a
bit cold in the shooting department. Very few of their attempts wanted to go in
the basket, often clanking off the rim.
It stood to
reason that things eventually would heat up, and that reasoning was correct.
The Gators’
radar began to work as it has most of the season to date, and they rolled to a
53-27 victory at the Activity Center.
The win was
Xavier’s 14th in a row and raised its overall record to 16-3. Desert
Ridge fell to 6-14.
Now comes
one of the Gators’ biggest challenges of the season.
On Friday
night (Jan. 12), they travel to face Gilbert Mesquite, the defending 5A
Conference champion that has won all of its games (15-3) except for a
three-game struggle in the prestigious Nike Tournament of Champions in Chandler
just before Christmas.
Mesquite
handed Xavier one of its losses this season, 60-52 in the (Gilbert) Highland
Thanksgiving tournament. The Wildcats feature one of the state’s top players in
guard Shaylee Gonzales, who has committed to BYU.
The contest
figures to be a battle between Gonzales and her backcourt mates against the
strong Xavier inside tandem of Montana Oltrogge and Katie Hassett.
Expect
Xavier guards Leilani McIntosh and Paris Moore to have their hands full.
Oltrogge and Hassett have been putting a lot of points on the board and Hassett
in particular also has become a rebounding and defensive force underneath.
Against
Desert Ridge, Xavier coach Jennifer Gillom wanted to try to build as big of a
lead as possible to allow Oltrogge and others to conserve some of their energy
for the Mesquite contest. Oltrogge scored 17 points against the Jaguars in the
first half and did not play in the second.
Addison
Putnam finished with 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Hassett
scored eight.
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