Lady Warriors Stay Unbeaten

Leyton's Lady Warrior basketball team stayed unbeaten with two big wins over the past week, while the boys squad split their last two games. The teams hosted Peetz on Thursday, December 7, and the Leyton girls had no trouble with the inexperienced Lady Bulldogs, racking up a big 63-to-6 win. It was a different story in the boy's game, as the Bulldogs are the defending Colorado 1A District 4 Champs, and have a very strong team. But Leyton got the jump on the Bulldogs early on, with senior Jonathan Kruse dominating under the boards and causing all kinds of problems for the Bulldogs. Leyton opened a lead early in the game only to have Peetz come back and tie. As the first period wore on, the Warriors picked up the pace and opened a 16-to-8 lead at the end of the quarter. Leyton looked sharp on defense and moved the ball around well, while Peetz mainly stayed on the perimeter and fired off long shots with little effect. As the half drew to a close, Peetz started to hit three pointers to narrow the gap, and a late triple by Peetz sophomore Rhyder Bayne narrowed the Leyton lead to 32-to-26 at the half.

Leyton battled hard to keep Peetz off-balance in the second half, but the Bulldogs kept coming and challenging the Warriors. The Warriors were able to maintain their composure and kept playing good defense. Although the Bulldogs were able to surge, Leyton did well enough to hold off their challenge, and were able to put away the Bulldogs with a 55-to-52 win. Kruse was the story of the game, scoring 22 points and pulling down 14 rebounds. The win gave the Warriors some momentum, which they would need in their next match against a tough South Platte team.

The Leyton squads traveled to Big Springs on Friday to match up with the Blue Knights of South Platte. The girls started first, and the evenly matched teams battled to a 33-to-33 tie at the end of the first half. The big story for Leyton was the play of Zaili Benish, recovering from a broken ankle earlier in the year, and then re-injuring the ankle in an earlier game. But she powered through the pain and played extremely well for the Lady Warriors. Leyton picked up the pace in the second half and opened a three point lead at the end of the third period. South Platte furiously battled back in the final quarter, but Leyton matched them score for score, and was able to hang on for the 76-to-71 win. The Lady Warriors did a great job at the charity stripe, sinking 20 of 26 attempts. Benish had a stellar performance offensively, knocking down six three point shots and sinking seven of nine free throws on her way to leading all scorers with 29 points.

For the boys, the Warriors again started hot, with Jonathan Kruse putting up 10 points in the first period to give Leyton an 18-to-12 lead at the end of the stanza. Leyton kept up the pace in the second period, again outscoring the Blue Knights and taking a 35-to-25 lead into the halftime intermission. Leyton was able to keep scoring effectively and kept the Blue Knights from going on any major runs. The Leyton squad pulled off a 12 point victory by the final score of 65-to-53. Freshman Clavin Borgmann led the scoring for Leyton with 18 points.