There’s been no place like home for the holidays for Dove Creek basketball.
Spending the last weekend before the winter break with their basketball family, the Dove Creek girls basketball program continued an annual tradition – win the Bulldog Classic.
The ‘Dogs controlled their first games on their home floor, opening with a 56-8 victory over Dolores on Friday night before topping Nucla 43-25 in the title game.
For head coach Julie Kibel, bringing back a loaded roster with plenty of postseason experience elevated the program to the next level. With that in mind, the Bulldogs made sure to stock their nonleague schedule with plenty of stern challenges to help get the Bulldogs battle-tested for the San Juan Basin League and big postseason ambitions.
Five seniors, including three starters, have brought a leadership style that allows the Bulldogs to pick up where they left off a season ago in terms of how quickly the team picks up new wrinkles in the system.
“The leadership is where we need it to be,” said Kibel of her senior class. “The maturity of these players to know their role and be able to go out there and play within that role – this is a true team.”
Dove Creek used their usual formula of tenacious defense and productive ball movement to steadily pull away from an improved Nucla (4-4) squad.
The Gatlin twins enjoyed one of their best collective outings of the season, led by Kalie’s game-high 13 points, while her sister Kylie collected eight. D.C. (6-2) led 26-15 at the half against the Mustangs, then completely shut down the visitors in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Senior Destiny Toledo scored the game’s final bucket to score her first points of the season.
Senior Rylee Hickman scored nine points, while classmate Trista Barnett added eight in the win.
“They see the floor so well,” said Kibel. “We’ve learned to play smarter – not giving away silly turnovers.”
The night prior in their victory over Dolores (2-8), eight different Bulldogs etched their name in the score column, with sophomore Ralynn Hickman scoring eight points, while seniors Lexi Gray and Kaylin Smith scored seven and six points, respectively. The Bulldogs scored the game’s first 10 points and never looked back as their defense kept the Bears on their heels for most of the night.
Their early season travails against Ignacio (57-39) and Centauri (68-67) only seemed to deepen the commitment that the Bulldogs carry on their path to once again make big waves in the 1A scene.
“We needed those challenges,” said Kibel of her 3A-heavy schedule, “and we’re going to use those games to our advantage to help us get better – the way the girls handled those losses (to Ignacio and Centauri) was exactly the way you’d want a mature team to deal with it.”
Dove Creek enjoyed winning their home tournament for the second straight year, joining the boys program with that feat – and now ride a five-game winning streak into the holidays.
Now, the ‘Dogs turn their focus toward larger objectives, beginning with the defense of their 2021-22 San Juan Basin League title. League play commences on Saturday, Jan. 7 with a trip to Telluride. From there, meetings with Nucla (Jan. 13) and Mancos (Jan. 17 and Jan. 27) will establish an early league pecking order.
“They play together so well,” added Kibel of her team’s chemistry, “and it’s something that I can’t take for granted – to have a group like this.”
