Bittersweet Goodbyes

Palisade High School basketball celebrated their seniors last Thursday, February 9th,  in a match against the Battle Mountain High School Huskies. The Bulldogs boys team celebrated their four seniors (from left to right) Justin Sanchez, Nick Campbell, Josh Zotto, and Lucas Perry. The girl’s team celebrated their two seniors: Ally Seriani and Lindsay Inman. 

The boy’s team started slow in the first and second quarters. As a result at halftime, they were down 15-21 at halftime. However, the seniors and the team were not going to let the Huskies come into their home court and take the win home. After halftime in the third quarter, the boys came out with a new fire lit. They outscore the Battle Mountain Huskies 10-2 resulting in the Bulldogs taking the lead 25-23. They didn’t let up on the gas and continued into the fourth quarter outscoring the Huskies again by 7 points. The seniors were able to play the majority of the game with their minutes for each of them ranging from 14 minutes to 24 minutes. With how they played in the second half of the game the Bulldogs took the win with a final score of 45-36.

The girl’s game however was not as high scoring as the boys. The Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Huskies battled back and forth the whole game with neither team scoring more than 11 points in a quarter and rarely even above 6 points. The Bulldogs freshman took the court the majority of the time with the seniors getting two minutes of playing time each. The Bulldogs were able to take the win 23-16 with sophomore, Addie Ritterbush, scoring a little more than half of the points.

Both the Bulldogs boys and girls teams then headed to Gypsum to face the Eagle Valley Devils for their senior night. Unfortunately, the girl’s team lost by 2 points, 45-47. They had a chance to tie the game with less than 10 seconds left in the game but missed the layup that could have done so. The girl’s team now has an overall record of 6 wins and 16 losses. They are third in the 5A Western Slope League with 1 win and 4 losses.

The boy’s game against Eagle valley started out strong, with them winning by one point at halftime. However, after halftime, the Devils were not going to give up the game. They came back very strong and outscored the Bulldogs in the third and fourth quarters. The Bulldogs lost the game with a final score of 56-71. With the last couple of games in their pockets it makes the boy’s basketball overall record 9 wins and 13 losses. Like the girls, they are also third in the 5A Western Slope League with 1 win and 4 losses. They both have one more regular season game Friday, February 17 against the Battle Mountain Huskies at Battle Mountain.

Lucas Perry, one of the seniors for the boy’s team, commented on his thoughts about leaving the program, “I have a close friendship with all of the seniors this year. I feel like we are leaving good stepping stones for the underclassmen to follow where they will have a lot of success next year.”