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Neal hits four of Summit’s eight 3-pointers in win

DEVON O'NEILsummit daily news

All of the sudden, the Summit High School girls basketball team looks a lot like the one that made it to the Sweet 16 of the 4A state tournament last year.Led by its perimeter shooting – which anchored the 2005 postseason run but has been missing thus far this season – the Tigers beat 5A Adams City on Wednesday, 59-54, to improve to 6-4 on the year.Sophomore Samantha Neal, who set the school scoring record and led the state in 3-pointers as a freshman, proved Monday afternoon’s breakout game was no fluke. She bid her shooting slump goodbye with 31 points in a loss to Centaurus, and backed it up with a team-high 18 points against the Eagles on Wednesday afternoon. She hit four of Summit’s eight treys in the win.Her backcourt mate Cissy Daniels, a senior, poured in 17 in another strong game, helping the Tigers overcome a slow start and pull it out in the second half.According to SHS coach Jeff Neal, confidence, both for his youngest daughter Samantha and the team as a whole, has been a key ingredient in the Tigers’ suddenly hot play.”I really think that’s one of our big things right now, is to have more fun on the floor and get our confidence back,” he said.The Tigers took a 28-27 lead over Adams City at the half, a margin that would’ve been much larger had the Eagles not been shooting the lights out themselves. In all, Adams City hit 10 3-pointers.The Tigers pushed the lead to six by the end of the third quarter, and held on in the final eight minutes.”I felt like we came out a little bit, not tight, but just sort of a little bit slow,” Jeff Neal said. “We really had to pick it up in the second half. We made a lot of good decisions down the stretch.”Lynlee Holloway and Katie Sodergren hit two 3-pointers apiece, finishing with 13 and six points, respectively. The Tigers host Jefferson at 7 p.m. Friday night in the third of four Jeffco/Skyline Tournament games this week.Devon O’Neil can be contacted at (970) 668-3998, ext. 13630, or at doneil@summitdaily.com.


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