The Ralston Valley Mustangs had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.5 points), and they went ahead and made it five on Thursday. They took down Broomfield 65-51. That's another feather in the cap for Ralston Valley, who also won these teams' last head-to-head.
Ralston Valley found their leader in underclassman Caiden Braketa, who scored 14 points along with nine rebounds and five assists. The matchup was Braketa's ninth in a row with at least ten points. Mason Trebilcock was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with eight rebounds.
Broomfield lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Andrew Effland, who scored 13 points along with six rebounds. Those six rebounds set a new season-high mark for him. The team also got some help courtesy of Ethan Zufall, who scored nine points.
Ralston Valley pushed their record up to 7-2 with that win, which was their fifth straight at home. As for Broomfield, their loss ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 6-2.
Ralston Valley will have some time to savor their victory since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Cherry Creek at 7:00 p.m. on January 8, 2024. Broomfield will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Mountain Range at 6:30 p.m. on January 5, 2024. Mountain Range will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Colorado Rankings (they are ranked 99th, while Broomfield is ranked 27th).