Big second half pushes No. 2 Faith Christian boys hoops past No. 3 Jefferson Academy

Brian Miller/CHSAANow.com

ARVADA – Having watched Jefferson Academy whittle a 17-point deficit down to only three points Friday night, Faith Christian Academy’s boys basketball team knew something had to change in the second half.

So how did the Eagles respond? They simply refused to miss.

Faith Christian, ranked No. 2 in Class 3A, was dialed in coming out of the locker room. The Eagles connected on 15 consecutive attempts at one point to pull away for a decisive 67-45 victory over No. 3 Jefferson Academy.

Junior Gabriel Hegarty and senior Grant Harkness combined to score 40 points in the victory. Spencer Bazz added 14, all of which came in the second half.

“We were feeling it during that third quarter,” said Hegarty, who had a game-high 22 points. “I think we were really hitting the shots and just feeling together as a team.”

Faith Christian (11-0, 1-0 in the Class 3A Metro League) led 23-6 early in the second quarter before turnovers helped shift the momentum to the Jaguars. A trio of 3-pointers ignited Jefferson Academy (10-2, 1-1), which was also a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the second quarter. Dalton Hagen’s 3-pointer capped off a 19-5 run that cut the Eagles’ lead to 28-25 at the half.

“First of all it’s a good team, so they’re not going to go away,” Faith Christian coach Andrew Hasz said. “Secondly, you hit some early shots and it makes you get a little lazy sometimes and you think ‘oh, we’re just always going to hit the shot.’

“I felt like we were trying to score on a five-second shot clock and not being as patient.”

Once sophomore Jonathan Hardcastle got the scoring started in the third quarter though, there was no stopping the Eagles. The team finished the quarter with eight buckets in a row, and Faith Christian drained its first seven attempts of the fourth quarter.

“When we started the second half we took poor shots and turned it over,” Jefferson Academy coach Mark Sharpley said. “We tried to rush it and then they started hitting all their shots.”

Much of the early damage was done inside, with Hegarty and Harkness scoring with ease in the paint.

“The guards know what Grant, Spencer and I are going to be doing,” Hegarty said. “They can get us the ball.”

Bazz was 4-for-4 from the field in the fourth quarter, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers. It wasn’t until the Jaguars blocked a shot attempt late in the fourth that the run came to an end.

“They hit us on some plays, and kind of uncharacteristic of us, we lost our man several times,” Sharpley said. “We allowed them to be underneath the hoop, around the hoop, and we had no idea where they were.”

Andrew Ullman led the Jaguars with 17 points and Joe Raff added 11. The team’s only other loss this season came to 4A Conifer back in December.

“Certainly a lot of things to learn from for us,” Sharpley said. “We’ll take the adversity, turn it into a positive and get back to work and hopefully get to play them again somewhere down the line.”

Faith Christian, which advanced to the 3A state semifinals a year ago, was playing in its league opener. The team hosts Bishop Machebeuf on Tuesday before matching up with state runner-up Colorado Academy on Jan. 23.

“The Metro League is hands down the toughest, year in and year out,” Hasz said. “It may be even more so this year, so it will be a battle every night.”