Pueblo South coach Shannan Lane. (Tracy Renck)
PUEBLO — Some girls high school basketball players do not have games like this their entire careers.
Shannon Patterson of Pueblo South is having nights like this on a regular basis.
The senior poured in 26 points powering the defending Class 4A state champion Colts to a convincing 76-30 win over Pueblo County in the South-Central League opener for both teams Tueday night at the Hornets’ Nest.
“Coming in people were saying we were not the same team we were last year,” said Patterson, who also had six 3-pointers. “We just wanted to prove them wrong and show them that we could be better than last year’s team and not to doubt us.”
South (11-1), which is ranked No. 3 in the latest CHSAANow.com poll, won its seventh game in row. Pueblo County (9-5) was no match for the Colts, who made 14 of 20 3-point attempts.
“I wasn’t surprised with how well South played, I just thought we could play with them and obviously I was wrong,” Pueblo County coach Mark Villegas said. “We missed some shots early and they hit a couple of big 3s and it just snowballed from there.”
Kendra Jesik and Patterson each had five points giving the Colts a quick 10-3 lead just over one minute into the game.
The Colts kept pushing the tempo and then with 4:44 left in the first half Patterson put on a clinic.
Pueblo South’s Shannon Patterson. (Tracy Renck)
The 5-foot-6 Patterson scored her team’s final 12 points of the second quarter, the final six on back-to-back treys. Patterson had 21 first-half points and the Colts were up 37-15 at intermission.
“I think she is the best player in 4A,” Villegas said of Patterson. “She provides ball pressure and she takes your best offensive player out of the game and she scores at will right now.”
Patterson, who came into the game averaging 23.4 points a game, drew praise from South coach Shannan Lane. Patterson has signed to play for Colorado State University-Pueblo next year.
“Shannon’s been solid,” Lane said. “She has stepped up her game from last year and she has had to. Everybody knows we are trying to fill those points we lost from Mikala (Gordon). We didn’t know where we were going to get those points and Kendra has picked it up a bunch. I really didn’t know if Shannon, who was scoring 16 points a game last year, could average almost 10 more points a game this season and she has. She’s playing at a different level. Her speed, her quickness and she’s just one heck of an all-around player.”
Gordon, a 5-foot-9 post player, averaged 17 points a game last season and was the Colts’ floor leader. Gordon is now playing for Colorado Christian University.
As good as Patterson and Jesik have been, they don’t work alone. Guard Jaylan Duran is scoring 12.3 points a game and 6-foot post player Sissy Hall is at 6.6 points. The juniors had nine points each against Pueblo County.
“The key for us is just to play as a family and trust each other,” Hall said. “If we do that, I’m confident we can make another run at winning state again.”
Duran had a game-high 19 points on the strength of five 3-pointers in the Colts’ 66-42 victory over D’Evelyn in the Class 4A state championship game at the Events Center at the University of Colorado last March.
South has won five girls basketball state championships in school history in 1979, 1992, ’93, ’94 and last year.