CENTER — Last Thursday night Center played host to Rocky Ford. The Meloneers came to town with more than the Vikings could handle and swept both the girls and boys games.

The girls’ basketball team was last in action at the Thunderbird Shootout in Mosca where they took eighth place. On Thursday Center and Rocky Ford took the court feeling one another out combining for just 15 points in the first quarter.

Rocky Ford woke up in the second quarter and put together some offense while keeping Center mostly quiet. Center was trailing but far from out of the game at the midway point in a 19-16 game. The girls were done in by Rocky Ford pouring it on in the third quarter. Rocky Ford capitalized on Center miscues and forced takeaways to put up 14 unanswered points.

By the time Center’s Camille Ruggles stopped the bleeding the Vikings were behind the eight ball in a 33-18 game. Ruggles put forth a strong effort with a team leading 13 points off the bench. Ruggles was followed in scoring by fellow senior Malyka Medina who posted 8 of her own.

The Vikings just couldn’t keep pace after allowing that scoring monologue from the Meloneers and chased Rocky Ford all the way to the 54-34 conclusion.

The Center boys also attended the Thunderbird shootout and knocked off Las Animas to earn a seventh place finish. On Thursday the boys suffered a suffered a similar fate however. The boys fell behind early and were unable to recover.

At the half the boys trailed by nine points, throughout the remainder Center chiseled the lead away to just five points with just over two minutes to play. Center wasn’t getting enough off their possessions while fouling on the other end of the court and wound up having to settle for a 56-52 defeat.

The Center Vikings got a little over a week to rest and recover with both the boys and girls traveling to La Junta on Dec. 16.