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Summit girls basketball team wins first home game of the season against Dakota Ridge

Cody Jones/Summit Daily News
The Summit High School girls basketball team huddles together prior to its home game against Dakota Ridge on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Summit overcame its slow start to defeat Dakota Ridge, 49-37.
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News

The Summit High School girls basketball team has continued its winning ways in the new year.

After getting out to the best start in recent program history, Summit racked up two more wins after the holiday break during a three-game tournament from Wednesday, Jan. 8, through Saturday, Jan. 11. 

In the team’s first game of the tournament on Wednesday, Summit faced Bear Creek High School. In the game, Summit battled down the stretch with the Class 6A team. At halftime, the Bear Creek Bears led by five, 19-14, which the team was able to expand upon in the second half.



Trailing 38-30, Summit came alive in the final quarter. With junior Phoenix Meyer hitting three, 3-pointers, the Tigers erased the deficit before continuing to score points. Outscoring Bear Creek 25-11 in the final quarter, Summit defeated Bear Creek 55-49.

“It was an amazing win,” head coach Kayle Burns said. “It felt good to be back on the court after break and really awesome to beat a 6A Denver school. I never thought that was something I would be able to say while coaching at Summit High School. So dang proud of the kids and these girls.”



Two days later, Summit managed to secure its sixth win of the season against Littleton High School. From the opening tipoff, Summit was in the driver’s seat, scoring 18 points in the first quarter and five in the second to lead 23-8 at halftime. 

With a sizable lead, Summit continued to play tough in the final half and managed to defeat Littleton, 32-19. Meyer and sophomore Stephanie Fuentes led the team in scoring with eight points each. 

“For Bear Creek we had a really great fourth quarter and came out with a lot of energy,” Meyer said. “For Littleton, we came out with a lot of energy and Katelynn (Smith) hit a three right off the bat. That set the tone for us to have a good game.”

Summit concluded the tournament on Saturday by taking on D’Evelyn for the second time this season. In the first meeting between the two teams on Dec. 13, D’Evelyn defeated Summit 74-46. 

With prior knowledge of how the team plays, Summit fared better against Class 4A’s No. 2 ranked D’Evelyn Jaguars, but came up short. Summit concluded the tournament with a 68-35 loss.

Flip Dalfonso/Courtest photo
Summit junior Teagan Barth dribbles the ball up the floor during Summit’s game against D’Evelyn High School on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025.
Flip Dalfonso/Courtest photo

“I think this time we worked on a lot of the stuff that hurt us in the first game,” Meyer said. “Even though the score didn’t show it, I think we did a good job working on and fixing the mistakes we made in the first game. We have added some new defenses that I thought worked pretty well and got them off their game which was pretty exciting.”

After playing the first month of the season on the road, Summit finally got the chance to show off in front of a home crowd, hosting Class 5A’s Dakota Ridge High School in Breckenridge on Tuesday, Jan. 14.

Seeking vengeance from its loss to D’Evelyn, Summit began the game by stealing the ball from the Dakota Ridge Eagles and scoring the first basket. However, Dakota Ridge quickly answered the layup from junior Kenya Rodriguez, charging down the court to make two, fast-break layups.

Summit tried to settle things down with a timeout, but continued to turn the ball over. Although the Tigers struggled to keep the ball in its possession, the defense came up big on the other end of the floor and prevented the Eagles from scoring.

Eventually, Summit found a little bit of momentum on offense, passing the ball across the floor and finding ways to score. In the waning moments of the first quarter, Meyer scored from inside the paint and Rodriquez made a 3-pointer in order to trail 13-7 going into the second frame.

Cody Jones/Summit Daily News
Summit junior Katelynn Smith dribbles the ball past a defender during the Tigers’ home game against Dakota Ridge on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News

Knowing the team needed to play better in the second quarter, Summit tried to set up its offense but was disrupted by the Dakota Ridge defense. The Eagles scored five unanswered points before Rodriguez cashed in on a jumper from the midrange.

The basket breathed life into the Summit offense, leading to two Smith layups and forcing a timeout from Dakota Ridge. The baskets cut into the deficit briefly, but Dakota Ridge managed to lead by 10, 25-15, at halftime.

The start of the third quarter was sluggish, with neither team scoring a basket for close to three minutes. Following several back-and-forth possessions, Meyer made a layup which brought the Tigers within eight points of the Eagles.

Needing to continue to score if it wanted to win the game, Summit slowed down its offense and set up scoring opportunities. The change in pace set up two huge baskets from Smith and Rodriguez to cut Dakota Ridge’s lead to four. 

Suddenly the gymnasium was filled with energy flowing in Summit’s direction. Sophomore River Close made a free throw before Smith tied the game at 27-27 with a huge 3-pointer from the corner. Rodriguez made her own 3-pointer at the end of the quarter to give Summit the 30-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Cody Jones/Summit Daily News
Summit senior Avery Eytel sprints towards the basket after securing a steal from a Dakota Ridge player on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News

Summit continued to score in the final quarter, quickly making a layup before hustling back down the floor to play tough defense. The strong defensive front lasted several minutes, but Dakota Ridge found a way to cut through it and pull within two points.

The Tigers once again answered the call, powering down the floor and scoring two baskets of its own. Leading by five points with under four minutes remaining, senior Avery Eytel intercepted a pass and then sprinted down the court for the layup.

On the verge of putting Dakota Ridge away for good, Close netted two baskets in the paint. The baskets from Close and a layup from Rodriquez was enough to lift Summit over Dakota Ridge. With the 49-37 win, Summit advances to 7-5 overall on the season while Dakota Ridge falls to 4-6. 

Summit will now prepare for a home game against Golden High School on Thursday, Jan. 16. The game is slated to tipoff at 5:30 p.m. with the boys basketball team taking on Golden at 7p.m.


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