By Michael Hicks
Berthoud Recorder

WINDSOR — Kaitlin Gault scored nine of her game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter and Windsor’s girls’ basketball team sent Berthoud into the consolation bracket of the 4A Northern Conference tournament with a 41-27 first-round victory Thursday night at Windsor High School.
Windsor (11-9) advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals where it will travel to second-seeded Longmont, an 87-36 winner over Greeley Central on Thursday night. Berthoud will host Greeley Central as part of a boy-girl doubleheader Saturday. The girls game will be at 7 p.m., right after the Berthoud boys play Silver Creek in their own consolation-bracket game.

The Berthoud girls (7-13) took advantage of the Lady Wizards’ zone defense to open the game on a 9-0 run — seven of those points coming from Danielle Wikre. But Windsor closed the gap to three on a 6-0 run of its own before Amy Ekart ended the quarter with a 3-pointer, the first of two for her on the night.

Even then, though, the momentum that Windsor had established continue on into the second quarter. The Lady Wizards ran off nine of the first 11 points of the quarter for a 15-14 lead — its only one of the first half.

Berthoud led 19-17 at halftime, but it would be the last time the Lady Spartans would lead all night. Windsor opened the third quarter on a 6-0 run and never looked back.

Berthoud closed the gap to 26-24 early in the fourth quarter, but the Lady Spartans offense never found its rhythm after the game’s first four minutes. Berthoud managed just two field goals and eight points over the game’s final 16 minutes.

Ekart finished with a game-high 13 points for Berthoud, but she made just two field goals — both of which were 3-pointers. Kelsey Doddridge and Evanee Pearcy scored seven points each for Windsor.

Berthoud played without the services of sophomore guard Megan McGinn, who tore the ACL in her left leg during last week’s game against Longmont.

4A NORTHERN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
FIRST ROUND
WINDSOR 41, BERTHOUD 27
BERTHOUD 12 7 3 5–27
WINDSOR 6 11 7 17–41
BERTHOUD: Amy Ekart 2 7-8 13; Kacey Fagler 2 0-0 4; Danielle Wikre 3 0-0 7; Rose Heaphy 1 1-2 3; Stephanie Heaton 0 0-0 0; Julia Perry 0 0-0 0; Sarah Loberg 0 0-1 0. TOTALS: 8 8-10 27.
WINDSOR: Taylor Krause 0 1-2 1; Kelsey Doddridge 3 1-2 7; Kaitlin Gault 4 4-7 13; Megan Wilkinson 2 1-2 5; Stephanie Clark 1 0-0 2; Evanee Pearcy 3 1-1 7; Faith Daniels 0 0-0 0; Sara Larson 3 0-0 6. TOTALS: 16 8-14 41.
3-POINTERS: Berthoud 3 (Ekart 2; Wikre); Windsor 1 (Gault)
FOULED OUT: None
TECHNICAL FOULS: None