How good is the Greeley Central girls basketball team?

An undefeated league record. One loss overall. State ranked and a double-digit win streak.Those credentials say a lot a lot about the Greeley Central girls basketball team. But what they don’t tell you is: how good are the Class 4A Wildcats? They rolled to their 10th-straight win with a 56-24 victory over Northern League opponent Longmont on Friday night.”Well, we’re not as a good as we can be yet,” said Wildcats’ coach Juliet Sheets after the win. “We’re good. Tonight, we got better.”Central, 7-0 in the Northern League and 15-1 overall, has not lost since Dec. 13, 47-45 to Fruita Monument. The Wildcats were ranked sixth in the most recent Class 4A state poll from CHSAAnow.com on Jan. 21, and their performance against the Trojans likely did little to hurt that standing.

Longmont (7-9 overall) came into the game tied with Thompson Valley for second in the Northern League at 5-1. Central defeated Thompson Valley 44-33 on Tuesday.Halfway through its league schedule, more than halfway through the 23-game regular, what’s behind Central’s good-looking numbers? They can talk about that over breakfast on Saturday. Because the Wildcats didn’t commit more than six turnovers against Longmont, the morning meal is on Coach Sheets.”This team is legit,” said senior post player Aubree Raimer, who had seven points on Friday night. “As the season goes by, we’re slowly but surely getting better. We’re still working on turnovers and we’re still working on our defense, but I think overall we definitely played a great game with defense and with turnovers.”[swift-infobox title=”Wildcats’ win streak”]Through its 10-game winning streak, the Greeley Central girls basketball team has averaged 53.2 points per game while holding its opponents to 29.6 ppg. In five of those games, the Central defense has held its opponents to 30 or fewer points including Friday’s win over Longmont.[/swift-infobox]Central blazed through the third quarter, going on a 19-0 game-defining run through the first 6 minutes, 46 seconds to take a 42-15 lead. Longmont’s Annika Wetterstrom stopped the run on a short jumper with under 30 seconds to play. Micaela Hidalgo, who had 10 points, hit a 3 at the third-quarter buzzer for a 45-17 lead.Central outscored Longmont 22-2 in the third quarter.”That was a good quarter for us,” Sheets said.

The Wildcats led 23-15 at the end of the first half – after Trojans guard Tara Hitchcock made 2-of-3 from the foul line to get Central’s lead into single digits and within shouting distance. Central was up by 10 points after a Kim Arredondo layup with about five seconds to go in the half. Thalia Cerda’s foul on Hitchcock’s 3-point shot gave the Trojans some momentum.It was short lived with the third-quarter run. Serving up a buffet of defensive looks after halftime, Central cracked down and put the game out of reach.But, there is work to be done. Senior guard Hattie Sheets, Juliet’s daughter, at first wasn’t sure where to go in evaluating Central’s season so far. She finally found her direction. True to form, as a coach’s kid, Hattie Sheets honed in where the Wildcats need to improve. She started with turnovers.”For us, if we don’t turn the ball over, we play at our best,” Sheets said. “Keep getting better, and climbing that ladder as we go through the rest of the season.”– Anne Delaney covers high school and recreational sports for The Greeley Tribune. Contact Anne at adelaney@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-5647 or on Twitter @AnneGDelaney.