MONTE VISTA — Fresh off their home tournament win over Center to win the Thunderbird Shootout, Sangre de Cristo’s Girls basketball team was on the road against Sargent for a non-league matchup. The T-Birds knocked off the home squad 45-27.

Friday’s game was both team’s first action since season beginning tournaments. Sangre de Cristo (4-0) went 3-0 at the T-Bird shootout and won it all. Sargent (1-3) faced some pretty stiff competition at the Mountain Top Classic against the likes of 4A Durango and 3A Centauri and left the weekend with a win over Las Animas.

Both teams were cold in the early going, the quarter nearly ended with neither team breaking double digits. Sangre de Cristo asserted themselves in the second frame going on an 18-3 blitz with junior Kylee Christensen accounting for ten points in the run. Sangre would go to the locker rooms leading 27-13.

Sargent’s Lexxi Aguilar would pace the Farmers in the second half with 6 points, but the damage had been done and Sargent would not recover. Sargent junior McKinzie Tolliver would lead her team in scoring on the night with 11 points. For the T-Birds, it was Kylee Christensen with 19 points in the win.

Four is the magic number for Sangre de Cristo looking forward. The Thunderbirds will go to the Christmas break with a perfect 4-0 record and a fourth-place ranking in the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) Coaches Poll from December 9th. They’ll be back in the New Year with a home meeting with Creede (0-3) on January 4th.

Sargent will go right back to work on Saturday night staying home for when Sierra Grande (0-3) comes to town.  The Panthers dropped both contests at the R.L Ballard Tournament in Springfield and suffered a third loss against Kim-Branson on Friday night. Sierra Grande will enter Sargent Gymnasium in search of their first win.

Elsewhere–Sanford (1-2), Centauri (5-0) and Del Norte (4-0) are participating in the La Junta Holiday Shootout. In La Junta. Centauri cleared Sanford 38-24 in the semifinal round, in the other end of the quadrant, Del Norte put the hurt on Swink with a 50-24 win. The loss sends Sanford to the third place game where they’ll face Swink at 2:30 p.m. Del Norte and Centauri will meet in the Championship game on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.