After a slow start, the Cottonwood girls basketball team has settled in. 

You had to be wondering how this season was going to turn out—after the Lady Colts went 1-3 to tip off the season. 

To their credit though, this squad has ridden through that preseason, and let those horseshoes settle into all their hooves nicely. 

Since that perilous point in time in early December, in which Cottonwood lost three of its first four games by 28, 10 and 37 points respectively, the Lady Colts have gone 9-1. 

Nine wins, one loss. 

How did that happen? 

Well, after years of playing as the second or even third option on some great Colts teams that have sent their top players on to college basketball programs, Carley Caton is finally getting her closeup. 

It has been a long time in coming for the Cottonwood senior, but it seems like Caton has been waiting for this moment for four years. She’s averaging 15 points and five rebounds per game for a Lady Colts team that has lost exactly once in Region 10 play, a narrow 37-31 loss to the Judge Memorial Catholic Bulldogs on Jan. 9. 

In addition to Caton leading the Lady Colts in both points and rebounds, senior Savannah Staheli is scoring the basketball at a rate of 11 points per game. The transfer is figuratively setting the hoop on fire, shooting 73% from the field. 

For Cottonwood (11-4, Region 10 6-1), Staheli isn’t the only newcomer doing serious damage to the opposition. 

Freshman Jelena Cecez, known to her teammates as Juju, is averaging 6 points, three rebounds and two steals, and has reminded more than one person of how Caton was when she first arrived on the scene, four years ago. 

Like Caton, Cecez is also carrying on a family tradition started when her older sister Jovana and brother Luka first ascended through Cottonwood’s ranks to eventual feature roles. 

We have seen this movie before with Luka, who is now becoming a star, benefiting from having had four years under Cottonwood’s high school basketball equivalent of Rick Majerus in head boys basketball coach Marc Miller, a career of Luka’s that has seen multiple deep state tournament runs. 

But, there is something special about Luka’s sister Jelena, who even as a freshman reminds some of her versatile older brother and sister. 

Lest you think it starts and ends with the Lady Colts’ top three scorers, it does not. Junior Piper Wilking is shooting 42% from three-point range, junior Le’ila Nu’usila is averaging five points, two rebounds and one steal, sophomore Belle Kellywood 4 points and two rebounds, and freshman A’mya Jones is averaging 4 points, three rebounds per game and one steal. 

Honestly, you can just see head coach Tes Soracco in her trademark sweater, standing near the timeline with her palms out, readying her Lady Colts for yet another half-court trap that will lead to easy transition baskets. 

The late coach Majerus would be proud, in more ways than one. 

What’s left for these Lady Colts that run about 11 players deep is the back half of Region 10 play. While the task is nowhere near complete, we are at the midway point of the league slate. 

Cottonwood currently sits ranked No. 14 in the latest RPI rankings that will eventually seed all the teams in Class 4A for the upcoming state tournament.