AURORA | At halftime of their EMAC opener with Brighton Saturday afternoon, the Rangeview girls basketball team held just a five-point edge against Brighton and appeared in for a battle to the end.
Then came the second half, when the Raiders held the Bulldogs to just four total points — two in each of the two quarters — and rolled to a 63-25 victory.
Rangeview is off to its best start in at least 15 years at 4-0 and got there with the help of a big game from junior Ny’Era West, who finished with a season-high 22 points. Seniors Amari Bullock and Brianna Linnear added eight and six, respectively, as the Raiders beat Brighton (1-4) by the identical score as they did in the first of two meetings last season.
Rangeview stretched its winning streak to five games again Brighton dating back to a loss late in the 2017-18 regular season.
This time, the game was tied at 17-17 midway through the second quarter after the Bulldogs’ Nikki Antonopoulous made a 3-pointer. Linnear broke the tie with a jumper and junior Genesis Sweetwine and West followed with triples to give Rangeview an eight-point edge that would shrink to five at the break.
A 15-2 second quarter put the Raiders in command and the margin was 22-2 in favor of Rangeview in the final period. Brighton managed just one basket in each of the final two frames and went 0-for-7 from the free throw line to boot.
The Raiders play at Adams City (1-2, 0-1) on Feb. 10.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
RANGEVIEW 63, BRIGHTON 25
Score by quarters:
Brighton 6 15 2 2 — 25
Rangeview 8 18 15 22 — 63
BRIGHTON (25)
Carly Pomrenke 3 0-0 8, Brooke Johnson 0 0-0 0, Liyah Bruin 2 0-0 4, Nikki Antonopoulus 3 2-2 9, Sydney Rodriguez 1 0-1 2, Kaylee Case 1 0-0 2, Ava French 0 0-2 0, Valeria Salinas-Vargas 0. Totals 10 2-9 25.
RANGEVIEW (63)
Genesis Sweetwine 2 0-0 5, Brianna Linnear 3 0-3 6, Amari Bullock 4 0-0 8, Ny’Era West 8 3-3 22, Amya Winfrey 0 1-4 1, Grace Solarin 1 0-0 2, Daijah Watkins 1 0-1 2, Rae Rae West 1 1-2 3, Dayahna McFall 2 0-2 4. Totals 27 5-15 63.
3-point field goals — Brighton (3): Carly Pomrenke 2, Nikki Antonopoulous. Rangeview (4): Ny’Era West 3, Genesis Sweetwine. Total fouls — Brighton 14, Rangeview 12. Fouled out — None. Technical fouls — None.
