The Vail Christian Saints will head out on the road to take on the Rangely Panthers at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Vail Christian has struggled recently with 12 defeats in a row, while Rangely will arrive with 12 straight victories.
Last Tuesday, things could have been worse for Vail Christian, but they could have been a whole lot better as they took a 44-29 loss to De Beque. Vail Christian was down 39-16 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.
Vail Christian's loss came about despite a quality game from Lia Nowicki, who scored 13 points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Nowicki has scored all season.
Meanwhile, Rangely can now show off 11 landslide victories after their most recent match on Saturday. They claimed a resounding 81-18 victory over Caprock Academy on the road. Given Rangely's advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 56th, while Caprock Academy is ranked 251st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Rangely to victory, but perhaps none more so than Ryann Mergelman, who scored 15 points along with four steals. Emmeree Wagner was another key contributor, scoring 16 points along with three steals.
Vail Christian dropped their record down to 1-12 with that defeat, which was their eighth straight at home. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 18.1 points per game. As for Rangely, their win bumped their record up to 17-1.
Vail Christian was dealt a bruising 60-25 loss at the hands of Rangely when the teams last played back in February of 2023. Can Vail Christian avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
