Zone championships will be awarded tonight

Saturday, Feb. 21, 1998 | 10:59 a.m.

Ray Brewer

The 4A Southern zone tournament comes to an end tonight with Valley playing Las Vegas in the boys title game and Bishop Gorman battling Silverado in the girls title game.

The top four teams for the girls and the boys teams have already qualified for the state tournament next weekend in Reno.

Here's a look at some of the action from Friday night.

Boys:

Valley cruised by Cheyenne 80-61

Valley, playing the tournament on its home court, outscored Cheyenne 21-13 in the first quarter and never looked back. Alex Hernandez scored nine of his game high 31 points in the first as the Vikings pulled away. Cheyenne would later trim the lead to four points early in the second quarter. Valley went on an 11-4 run to close out the first half 41-28. Valley's Jason Juniel finished with 18 points. The Valley defense shut down Cheyenne's main offensive weapon, Demetrius Hunter, and limited him to 12 points.

Las Vegas beats Green Valley 85-62.

Las Vegas High School's Ronnie Jones hit six three-pointers and scored 26 points on lead his team to the lopsided win over the Gators. Las Vegas lead 48-31 at the half. Mario Finley added 15 points for Las Vegas and Jamar Glasper lead Green Valley's scoring with 19 points.

Girls:

Gorman registered a 67-53 win over Cheyenne.

The first girls game was a blow-out just like the two boys games Bishop Gorman walked all over Cheyenne to advance to the girls title game. Trailing by two points after the first quarter, the Gaels battled back to lead 31-30 at halftime. But in the third quarter, Cheyenne fell to pieces. Gorman scored 19 of the 23 points scored in the fourth quarter to pull away with the win. The Gaels, last season's Southern zone champions, were lead by Paige Sutton's 22 points and 15 points from Elizabeth Cansdale. Amy Roban and Jen Swanson had 12 points each for the Gaels. Amanda Koval scored a team-high 20 points for Cheyenne, including six three-pointers.

Silverado edged Durango 43-38.

The Silverado girls basketball team qualified for the state tournament for the first time in school history on Wednesday with a three point victory over Bonanza. After the first quarter, Durango held a slim 6-5 lead. That's before Silverado freshman Jayme Connors took over. Connors, who led Silverado with 20 points, was a dominant force inside scoring five second quarter points. She had one key assist in Silverado's 15-6 run. Connors started the third quarter with 11 straight points to help Silverado maintain a 38-26 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Trailing by 11 points, Durango couldn't overcome the deficit, but managed to scored eight of the final 11 points before time expired. Angela Perrault scored 14 points for Durango.

Tonight's matchups at Valley High School

The girls game tips off at 5 p.m. and the boys will follow at 7 p.m. The third and fourth place games will start at 1 p.m. for the girls and 3 p.m. for the boys.