No. 10 Fossil Ridge stifles Fort Collins

Tuesday was death by a thousand paper cuts for Fort Collins' Front Range League record.

Just cut after cut after cut inflicted by the Fossil Ridge High School girls basketball team, which concocted a suffocating formula of depth and defense to win 46-22 in front of a packed and loud gym Tuesday night.

Depth? Fossil Ridge was always fresh, rotating through the bench and getting scoring from nine different players.

Defense? The SaberCats trapped Fort Collins in the turnover jungle Tuesday night.

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“It’s better than anything,” Fossil Ridge sophomore Lauren Zwetzig said. “It’s awesome with all the fans and the band and us playing together as a family.”

Fossil Ridge, ranked No. 10 in Class 5A by CHSAANow.com, was itching for a complete performance, still trying to bounce back from a lopsided loss to top-five-ranked Horizon earlier in January.

It set up a perfect storm of sorts. The focus was guaranteed to be there in the huge rivalry game against a Fort Collins (14-2, 4-2 Front Range League) team threatening to challenge for the league title.

Fossil Ridge (14-4, 7-1) showed why it is capable a deep run in the playoffs. The SaberCats can just win so many ways.

Fossil Ridge blitzed Fort Collins with a variety of traps, using the athleticism and depth of its roster to create a bevy of turnovers.

That led to a variety of options for a Fossil Ridge team that doesn’t have to lean on one star to score. There’s no one hammer used to beat down foes.

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Tuesday it was Zwetzig from the start. She scored 11 of her game-high 13 points in the first half.

Reilly Dunn scored all eight of her points in the first half, playing what coach Chad Salz called the “game of her life” as she locked down the paint on defense.

Fossil Ridge limited Fort Collins to seven or fewer points in each quarter and led by 17 at half. The game was never closer than 14 points after that.

There will be better nights for the Lambkins. Fort Collins is still in the mix to be at or near the top of the league. The turnovers were the main problem Tuesday. Grace Sluss led the team with seven points and Delsie Johnson had six.

Fort Collins is still gaining big-game experience and Tuesday’s loss will be a growing point.

Fossil Ridge is hoping the win, which brings a sweep of city foes for the season, will help the SaberCats bounce back to the form that saw them beat No. 1 Highlands Ranch earlier in January.

“Our defense created everything. They were awesome tonight,” Salz said. “Hopefully it gets us out of our funk. We needed this.”

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle at twitter.com/Kevin_Lytle and at facebook.com/KevinSLytle.

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(10) FOSSIL RIDGE 46, FORT COLLINS 22

Fort Collins 5 7 6 4 — 22

Fossil Ridge 13 16 8 9 — 46

Fort Collins (14-2, 4-2 FRL) — Sluss 7, Johnson 6, Fischer 3, Jones 3, Williams 3.

Fossil Ridge (14-4, 7-1 FRL) — Zwetzig 13, Dunn 8, Steffeck 8, Hobbs 5, Guzman 4, Kohler 3, Novak 2, Hadad 2, Lang 1.