Pagosa Springs 54, Estes Park 49

The most evenly matched game of the day lived up to the billing.

Fourth-seeded Pagosa Springs saw a 41-31 lead to start the shrink to 45-43 with two minutes to play, but the Pirates were able to put the ball in the capable hands of junior Mary Brinton and Breezy Bryant to hang on against the defending state runners-up from Estes Park.

Brinton led Pagosa with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Both Bryant (12 points) and senior Victoria Espinosa (5-for-6 from the line) hit their free-throws down the stretch to keep the Bobcats at bay.

Estes Park (21-4) got 20 points from all-state gurad Kimmy Hansen and 12 from Kyra Stark.

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Pagosa Springs is the only school to have both of its teams in the tournament.

"That's a neat deal for our school," said Jim Shaffer, the Pirates' athletic director and boys basketball coach. "We're really proud of that."

Shaffer said this will be the sixth year that he's taken his team to the tournament in his nine years at Pagosa Springs.

"CSU and the whole Fort Collins are great environments," Shaffer said. "The only negative for us is how long it takes to get there."

Shaffer estimated it took about six to seven hours to complete the roughly 350-mile trip.

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