The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Trojan girls dominate Palmer to open season

BY HUGH JOHNSON

Earlier this year when The Gazette caught up with Fountain-fort Carson’s 6-foot, 4-inch senior Aiyana Mitchell after a volleyball win, she said she was more into basketball than volleyball.

She wasn’t kidding.

The center/power forward and Vanderbilt commit scored 25 points in the Trojans’ opener at Palmer on Saturday, part of a 69-39 blowout win for Fountain-fort Carson.

Standing head and shoulders over every competitor on the opposing team, Mitchell was a terror for the Terrors at the baseline and on the offensive and defensive glass. She was having so much fun she even said, “Awww” with all the disappointment of a kid leaving a playground when head coach Shannon Patterson subbed her out of the game for the final time with a couple of minutes remaining in regulation.

“I’ve been playing since around, I think, seventh grade so a little bit of a late start,” she said. “(Basketball) is just so engaging, you get to make an impact. ... And it’s a team sport but it’s, in a sense, a personal sport where you can do things to change things.”

Mitchell’s play was bolstered by her teammates, who also made great use of the baseline to outplay Palmer.

Fountain-fort Carson did have the fresher set of legs, however.

The hosts were playing the final game of the Terror Tip Off tournament, a threeday event. The Trojans only played Saturday as a filler due to other schools dropping out, whereas Palmer was playing its third game in 24 hours, coming off a pair of wins on Friday.

Even so, size and hustle were the difference for Fountain-fort Carson. Beyond Mitchell, the Trojans have her sister, Keira, a junior who is listed at 6-foot-3, junior Dessirae Ulmer listed at 6 feet, and senior Michaela Bosmans listed at 5-foot-10, among others. Bosmans and Ulmer each scored 10 points and Keira added eight.

“I tell the girls all the time: You don’t see it too often, especially in high school basketball. I didn’t even have kids that were that tall. And a lot of times, you don’t even see it in college, especially at the Division II level,” Patterson said. “So it’s a special group and just us understanding that, hey, we can get up and

“(Basketball) is just so engaging, you get to make an impact. ... And it’s a team sport but it’s, in a sense, a personal sport where you can do things to change things.” Aiyana Mitchell, Fountain-fort Carson

pressure a little bit more and make teams play around the floor because we’re going to have that rotation with the bigs.”

During the times she was rotated out, Mitchell was just as enthusiastic and energetic for the Trojans as she was in the game, flexing and hollering at every big block and standing up and cheering her teammates when they drove the basket and scored.

“I love the energy that they give me and a big quote from my coach is, ‘You’re either an energy giver or an energy taker,’ so I think if I just can give energy 24/7, then I know that I’m not taking energy from my teammates it’s gonna (loosen) them and make them play better,” Mitchell said.

The win is a great start for Fountain-fort Carson, who has four games in Colorado Springs before heading to a tournament in Las Vegas on Dec. 18.

SPORTS

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2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/282471417887732

The Gazette, Colorado Springs