Basketball Recap: Mountain Vista Comes Up Short in High-Profile Match with Thunderridge

On Friday, Mountain Vista faced ThunderRidge in a battle between two of the state's top teams. The Mountain Vista Golden Eagles took a 66-58 hit to the loss column at the hands of the ThunderRidge Grizzlies. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Wednesday (56), the Golden Eagles still had to take the loss.

Cal Baskind

Points

02/14/25 @ ThunderRidge	18
02/12/25 vs Regis Jesuit	16
02/07/25 vs Rock Canyon	20
02/04/25 vs Legend	21
01/31/25 vs Douglas County	19
+ 5 more games

Mountain Vista's loss came despite strong showings from Cal Baskind and Oliver Junker. Baskind posted 18 points and three steals, while Junker earned nine points and six rebounds. Baskind's evening made it ten games in a row in which he has scored at least 16 points. Another player making a difference was Carlos Arocho, who had eight points and five assists.

ThunderRidge got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Drew Paine out in front who made all 6 shots he took to post 15 points and seven boards. The dominant performance also gave Paine a new career-high in assists (four). Aman Binu was another key player, as he made all 7 shots he took for 16 points.

Mountain Vista's defeat was their first in the league, dropping their league record down to 8-1 and their overall record down to 16-5. As for ThunderRidge, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 16-5 record this season.

Both teams are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Mountain Vista will welcome Ralston Valley at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. One thing working in Mountain Vista's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points every time they've taken the court this season. As for ThunderRidge, they will host Douglas County at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Douglas County is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 52.1 points per game this season.