Ball Fever: Overland makes statement by winning national tourney

Rangeview Cherry Creek boys basketball fans

The final week of hoops before winter break has left us all begging for more and eagerly awaiting league play when we return in 2016.

Let’s check out the non-conference, tournament, and out-of-state action that even the December snow, couldn’t slow. And not to be overshadowed by this week’s snow and stellar action on our Colorado courts, the Overland Trailblazers just “blazed a trail” through Las Vegas that will squarely place them in the national rankings.

Week in review

Monday, Dec. 14:

Prairie View Douglas County boys basketball

Arvada West needed a duo to step up and they got just that in Dallas Walton’s 22-point, 9-rebound effort alongside Will Wittman’s 22-point, 12-rebound double-double in win over Castle View.
Monarch has won some close ones early this year and does again with 59-56 win over Loveland.
Started slow with a 16-10 first quarter but did the action ever pick up as Douglas County outlasted Prairie View 83-77 with CJ Jetta clocking a 20-point, 12-rebound double-double. Check out Matt Mathewes’ full report.
Denver South coming into form and earned a nice 73-70 win over 5A Rampart with an impressive six players in double figure scoring led by senior Chudier Bile’s 16 points, 9 rebounds.
The GW Patriots had four players in double figures with Jon’il Fugett and Daylen Kountz both hitting for 23 as they were rude visitors to Gateway in winning 86-52.
A lil Ball Fever “dig” into the stats here as we all know the sad news of Chris Helbig missing this season due to injury but how about “FRESHMAN ALERT”: 6-foot-3 Kyle Helbig with 15 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals in Holy Family’s 12-point win over Silver Creek.
Wheat Ridge’s Travis Cohan and Nashon Thomas score 18 to lift them over Frederick.

Tuesday, Dec. 15:

Mother Nature 1, CHSAA Hoops 0 on this day folks!

Wednesday, Dec. 16:

The Fever Crew made it over to Aurora Central hosting the Montbello (FNE) Warriors in a match of teams hoping to crack the top-10 and continue strong play. Senior point guard Sekou Cisse sealed the deal for the Warriors scoring all points down the stretch, 16 points, 11 rebounds overall for Cisse while the Trojans went totally cold in their gym late in the game.
Smoky Hill visiting Rangeview in a weather make-up was the battle of Buffalo youth vs. seasoned vets or the Raiders and Rangeview’s Tyrei Randall’s 22 points along side fellow senior Elijah Reed’s 25-point, 10-rebound double-double was plenty for the No. 3 Raiders to pull away.
Really like CJ Jennings from down south at Sierra and his 25-point, 4-rebound, 2-assist, 2-steal night led to a big win over Falcon.
4A Thomas Jefferson came out strong in first half at Cherokee Trail leading early but Jaizec Lottie and David Thornton turned it on second half scoring 27 and 20 points respectively leading to an 18-point romp.
Doherty walked into the Legend gym full of confidence and balance … both showed brightly. Check out Matt Daniels’ photo report here.
Score keeper was busy as Mountain Range and Prairie View battled to a 92-86 final. Check out Tyler Smith’s “monsta” double-double of 25 points, 17 rebounds in the win for Mountain Range while Trey Marble scored 31 in the loss.
The state’s No. 1-squad started the Las Vegas “Tarkanian Classic” tournament on a team beating nationally renowned Cal Poly by 19 points in Vegas!
No. 2 ThunderRidge flexed their muscles bullying Columbine 74-31 on the road with nine players scoring led by Stetson-bound Clay Verk’s 16.
The score keeper needs to keep the coffee close by and stay alert when Michael Ranson is in the house. “Dirty Mike” struck again this time dropping 45 points as Pueblo Central scored 107 vs Mesa Ridge. Bring your track shoes!
Keep an eye on the Bison from Vista Peak! Another strong road win 77-56 at Niwot with Te’Rae Johnson scoring 19.
That Arapahoe balance was on display this night as four Warriors were in double figures led by Kyle Lukasiewicz 19 in the rivalry 18-point beating of Heritage.

Thursday, Dec. 17:

Chatfield, new to the CHSAANow top-10, kept their streak going with a 1-point overtime win over Palmer. Dan Morhmann has the action shots.
Well “Aloha” Denver East! The Angels started their Hawaii road trip with 68-44 win over Foothill Nevada. Seniors led as Daytone Jennings scored 16 alongside Deron Harrell’s 15 points.
Unofficially we have our buddy sharp-shooter Kolton Peterson scoring 43 points as Lakewood gets a signature win over Mountain Vista.
Had to do a lil Ball Fever “dig” on Mead as they are getting votes for our 4A top-10 and take a look at Walker Korrell putting up 28 points as they take down Pueblo East 73-44.
No. 3 Ranked Rangeview marched into Cherry Creek and came away with the last second win on Ellijah Blake’s game winning bucket. Matt Minton took the action in.
We marked this game as Eaglecrest’s first “test” on the road at a hot Boulder squads home but Colbey Ross’ 21 points helped the Raptors lead from beginning to end and win by 16.
Castle View will face a TOUGH schedule in the Continental league and earned a solid win in non league over a good Grand Junction squad 77-73.
Dakota Ridge was surging but a surprising Grandview Wolves squad halted that taking them down 77-67.

Friday, Dec. 18:

Valor Christian Pueblo Central basketball

Mike Ranson strikes another 40-plus game for Pueblo Central but even that wasn’t enough to take down the balance of No. 2 Valor and Dan Morhmann was on the scene. Find photos here.
Some northern bragging rights on the line as Legacy and Broomfield tangle. Eagles down by five at halftime battled back to win by two with Nate Lehnerz scoring 14.
Boulder has tackled a tough non-league scheduled and that continued as they got back on track with nine-point home win over Aurora Central led by Luke Wilson’s 13 points.
Douglas County has been playing good ball but Monarch couldn’t tell as they beat them by 30 Friday night.
No. 8 Rock Canyon is another of our teams “rep’n the 303” out of state in Las Vegas as well and Isaac Hirsch’s 20 points got them off to a solid start with 2-point win over Godby.
The Sabercats are on the road as well and Braxton Bertolette is on fire this time scoring 22 points in Fossil Ridge’s Las Vegas win over Coral Academy.
Let’s continue our look at tournament travelers with Overland beating perennial Utah tough Bingham by nine points in Las Vegas.
Speaking of travel efforts, how about Denver East’s 29-8 fourth quarter advantage to get another win in Hawaii over Provo UT 65-46! Deron Harrell led with 17 points and junior guard Joe Abiakam was “stat-stuffin” 11 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals.
ThunderRidge making it look easy as well on their road trip winning 74-44 over Tolleson with Wyoming commit Austin Mueller putting in 18 points.
No. 3 Pueblo South continues to take no prisoners as they ring up a 90-52 win over Mitchell.
Is there a squad with more balance than Doherty’s five players consistently scoring double digits? This night, Kayden Washington couldn’t miss scoring 23 as the Spartans won 94-75 over Mesa Ridge.
4A No. 1 Longmont and Justinian Jessup’s 21 kept their train rolling with a 24-point win over Poudre.

Saturday, Dec. 19

Regis Jesuit George Washington boys basketball

We’ve talked about Regis’ Geoff Kelly coming into his own and his 26 points vs. George Washington did nothing to detract from that belief. Jack Eberhard was in the house Saturday night.
The Mullen Mustangs didn’t have a single player score in double figures but didn’t need it to win the title game of their annual tournament beating a solid 4A Sand Creek team by 10.
Denver East’s Hawaii run came to an end vs. a strong Moreau Catholic squad. The Angels battled until the end getting the lead down to two points in the final minute before senior Daytone Jennings (16-point, 21-rebound “monsta” double-double) fouled out on a tough call late in the game. Moreau went on to win by 6.
Looks like Devante Jones is back in the lineup for Dakota Ridge and it will make a difference as he made his presence felt with 28 points, eight rebounds in win over Arapahoe.
This time it was Troy Brady’s turn to lead No. 2 ThunderRidge in their traveling tourney with 17 points in their easy 40-point win over Browne.
These FNE (Montbello) Warriors have been finding their way behind senior leader Sekou Cisse who followed up the double-double at Aurora Central with a 16-point, 9-rebound effort as the Warriors ran away from Hinkley.
Well, this is something the Fever Crew has simply NEVER typed before: 16-of-21 from 3-point land part of Braxton Bertolette’s 48 points for Fossil Ridge in Las Vegas. Turn him loose Coach Johannsen … turn him loose! That’s the kinda “green light” Ball Fever likes to see!
Some sweet double-double efforts this week and in the battle of Highlands Ranch Valor’s Jalen Sanders had 21 points, 14 rebounds as the Eagles beat H-Ranch by 20. And by the way, Dylan McCaffrey can do a little more than play quarterback as he joined our hoops fun scoring 17 points of his own!
Mead has been flirting with our 4A top-10 and they played No. 3 Pueblo South tough but South won it 66-61 … need those stats!
The Fever Crew likes to call 4A No. 1 Longmont “quietly trucking along” and that’s exactly what they continued to do with 51-32 win over Windsor.
Only right we end this week with our state’s No. 1 squad making a huge statement on the national stage taking down Bishop Gorman with a last-second bucket by big De’Ron Davis to seal the Trail Blazers undefeated run in the Tarkanian Classic Platinum Division. Big De’Ron will consistently do his thing vs. the nation’s best as he has proven but the addition of Jervae Robinson returning to the roster and “scoring in bunches” in Vegas led to him bringing home the MVP of the Platinum Division. This run will have Overland knocking on the door of national rankings which is awesome for CO Hoops! Can’t remember a national run vs. top national comp like this. Congrats Coach Fisher and crew!

A look ahead to this week’s top games

The Cherry Creek Tournament dominates the action this week!

Monday, Dec. 21:

Pine Creek at Highlands Ranch get Creek tourney started.
Legend is in jeopardy of falling out of 5A top-10 and have to tangle with a feisty 4A Thomas Jefferson.
Doherty at Regis as the Spartans seek to take down another Aurora top squad.
Fountain-Fort Carson and Lincoln in more Cherry Creek tourney action. ThunderRidge and Denver East continue out of state action.

Tuesday, Dec. 22:

Lincoln at Cherry Creek…they will beat each other up!
Fountain-Fort Carson at Highlands Ranch.
Pine Creek at Legend in more Cherry Creek play.
Eaglecrest takes their show into Chaparral in the evening.
Littleton at Gateway.

Wednesday, Dec. 23:

Pine Creek at Cherry Creek.
Lincoln vs Legend in Creek tourney.
Fountain-Fort Carson and Thomas Jefferson at Creek.

After Wednesday, the winter break kicks into effect until Jan. 2.

What a week of hoops folks! The snow couldn’t stop the in-state play and our young men’s performances out-of-state have college coaches and national writers paying attention to what’s going on in the 303 and 719 … as well they should!