BERTHOUD — With a 55-49 victory over Berthoud on Thursday at BHS, the Thompson Valley girls basketball team maintained its slim lead in the Longs Peak League standings.
All the Eagles (18-3 overall, 13-1 LPL) have to do now to win their first league title since 2020 is win their final two regular season games next week against the two teams immediately below them in the conference, Timnath and Roosevelt.
The Cubs and Roughriders both have two league losses and still have a game against each other left to play.
Thompson Valley’s four seniors — Libby Jarosik, Jesika Hopkins, Mekayla Macias and Gennevieve White — have been working together for four years to accomplish the goal of winning a league title and having their year added to the team’s list of conference champions that hangs in their home gym.
“Us four seniors, we’ve been working at this since freshman year,” Jarosik said. “We want this. We want our year up there. We know we deserve it. So, I think we just have to play our game.”
Thursday’s victory over the Spartans was the Eagles’ fourth in a row since suffering their first and only league loss to Northridge on Jan. 29. In the win, Jarosik scored 23 points for the second time in the Eagles’ past three games. The first time she did it, last week against Mountain View, it was a career high.
She has provided a spark offensively as the Eagles enter a big final week of their regular season.
“We had a conversation a couple of days ago about her offensive production, and she’s so capable,” Thompson Valley head coach Mike Artis said. “I think she’s the best defender in the state, and I think she gets her head caught up on the defensive side of the ball and kind of forgets the offense, and she’s a complete basketball player. She’s amazing.”
Jarosik scored eight of her points against Berthoud in the first quarter, but no basket she made was bigger than a fourth-quarter 3-pointer.
The Spartans had just gone on a 10-0 run and cut the Eagles’ lead to 49-47 in the game’s final minutes. As the scoreboard clock went from minutes to seconds, Jarosik’s shot pushed Thompson Valley’s advantage to 52-47 and turned out to be the winning bucket.
“That was crazy,” Jarosik said. “I was a little bit nervous, but I knew you have to shoot to score. So, either take it or somebody else takes it.
“The last couple of games, I haven’t been playing my best, so I think tonight I attacked more and took the open shot. So, I think I’ve kind of started playing more my at game rather than just depending on my team; playing the game I know how.”
Now the Eagles hope to continue their momentum into next week. After losing twice in a span of three games to Loveland and Northridge, the team has regrouped and Artis believes they are ready for next week’s games and the pressure that will come with them.
“I think we definitely have regrouped,” Artis said. “We’ve talked and we’ve reconnected, and the rest of the season, it’s by any means necessary. So, whatever it looks like, that’s what it looks like as long as we finish on top. I think the girls have come back together and it’s been a lot of pressure, and I think the girls are accepting that pressure and taking it head on.”
While the Eagles came away with the win, the Spartans put up a valiant fight. The game was much closer than the teams’ first meeting, when Thompson Valley won 58-43.
The Eagles led 30-17 at halftime, but Berthoud opened the second half with an 8-2 run to get within 32-25. It was the first of three consecutive 8-2 runs by both teams as Thompson Valley used one to go up 40-27 and the Spartans answered to cut the Eagles’ lead to 42-35.
Berthoud trailed 49-37 when the Spartans went on a 10-0 run to make it a two-point game before Jarosik’s dagger three.
“These girls don’t give up,” Berthoud head coach Antonio Grace said. “They’re just resilient. They really are. If we could just fix some breakdowns on defense. Those are all fixable things. Thompson Valley is a good team. I feel like we played them really well tonight.”
Sofia Sigg led the Spartans with 19 points. Avery Pfohl added 13.
The Spartans are now 12-7 overall and 7-5 in the LPL, four games behind the Eagles in the standings. While Thompson Valley has two games remaining, the Spartans have four as they try to maintain playoff-hosting position. Two of their last four games are against Roosevelt and Timnath as well.
Berthoud will face the Roughriders on Tuesday in Johnstown. Thompson Valley will play at Timnath on Tuesday before hosting Roosevelt on Friday.
