Ball Fever: Monster early-season boys hoops matchups take center stage

Our new rankings are out, folks, and it reflects the tremendous starts teams like George Washington, Denver East, Smoky Hill, Pueblo West, and Vista PEAK are having (just to name a few).

As exciting as the action was out-of-state and locally last week this one is shaping up to be just as tremendous with monster early-season matchups.

Let’s take a look at the big games and see if we can’t find a few gems that may normally go overlooked.

A Look Back

Monday, Dec. 12

Our 4A No. 2 squad, already senior-heavy with Jalen Sanders and Kayle Knuckles leading scoring, just got better and state champ quarterback Dylan McCaffrey just joined the hoop squad. He started off with 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals in Valor’s win over Thomas Jefferson.
We don’t scour the 3A action much but there’s a player at Manual HS demanding attention! Jayden Bowles again displayed why he’s one of the most talented sophomores in the state regardless of division scoring 33 points in the Thunderbolts close 77-73 win over Pinnacle. Bowles was an amazing 14 of 15 from the field and hauled in 11 rebounds for the double-double!
Mountain Range used a 20-3 second quarter advantage after starting down 9 to Horizon to seal the win behind Max Castillo and Mike Polson’s 15 points each.
Palmer has a brutal early schedule and the Terrors got in the win column over Castle View with sophomore Darien Meyers scoring 17!
Luke Wilson’s 21 points helped a feisty Boulder squad to a 1 point half time lead but an Eaglecrest team with something to prove after dropping to No. 5 in our poll, pulled out this 61-51 victory. A 23-13 fourth quarter did the trick for the Raptors!

Tuesday, Dec. 13

George Washington Smoky Hill boys basketball

There hasn’t been a Tuesday this action-packed (especially this early) in a few years and there was no larger match than No. 1 George Washington hosting quickly rising Smoky Hil,l who has jumped into the top-10 at No. 8 after their impressive road trip and start to season. Dan Morhmann was our man on the scene as the Patriots “raced” to the huge home win.
We were joking on twitter that if the Grandview Wolves pop up on your schedule: be sure to have a point guard and big man to match what the Wolves have! Rampart, with all of it’s size in starting five, found out that is easier said than done as Gage Prim was again workman-like, scoring 15 points. Bt the man of the night was Lechaun Duhart who poured in a season high 33 points!
Montbello’s FNE Warriors have been playing good ball early but this night they ran into the “run-n-gun” pressure defense of No. 10 Chatfield and Dennis Pleuss has you fully covered.
Senior point guard Brevin Brimble was cookin’ early as he went 7-10 from the field scoring 20 in only three quarters of play as the No. 9 Spartans took down Dakota Ridge by 19 points. We were able to catch up with the senior for a bit of a Ball Fever Chat and Brevin credited the team’s “family feel” to their offseason work, stating, “We’ve been working hard ever since we lost in the Elite 8 last year. We’ve become more of a family … closer as team.” With teams like Mountain Vista and Regis coming up for the 4-1 Spartans, Brimble embraces it: “Having a tough schedule is great!” He hopes the tough schedule proves just what a special team the Spartans have this season. He feels the brutal non-league schedule will “help us prepare for March when it’s time to compete for a ring.” With senior leadership like Brimble there’s no reason the Spartans shouldn’t visit the coliseum again!
Jack Eberhard has your action shots from the streaking Cherry Creek Bruins 19-point win over Monarch.
The Vista Ridge duo of Hunter Maldonado (29 points) and Noah Beatty (16 points) again proving to be one of the best tandems in the state as Vista Ridge blows out 5A Loveland. Vista Ridge will be a 4A terror late season! The Fever Crew was alerted to take to Twitter for this unbelievable dunk by Wyoming-bound Maldonado:

?? HUNTER BE FLYING??

VideoCreds:@WillHaywood22 Dunker:@therealhunter24 pic.twitter.com/tZdI61BEzT

— Mr. Nice Guy? (@TeQuanBaker) December 14, 2016
No Surprise Mountain Vista and Fossil Ridge raced to a 77-67 final score as both teams can get up and down! Seniors stars showed up as Braxton Bartolette scored 28 but not enough as Jake Belknapp’s 26 helped Vista secure the win.
J Pfaffinger led four Lambkins in double figure scoring when Fort Collins only allowed 34 total points to Aurora Central at Fort Collins.
Boy, Vista PEAK again looks balanced with four starters scoring 14 points or more. The Bison are undefeated and passed another early test beating Lewis-Palmer by 5 at home.
Sand Creek dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in our 4A poll after suffering their first loss last week and they took it ALL out on Ponderosa in a blow out Tuesday!
Rock Canyon remains No. 2 in this week’s poll and they again held court vs. tough Overland 55-47 with junior star Sam Masten scoring 20.
Three seniors score 14 points each as Heritage shuts down Littleton 69-35.
The Grizzlies remained undefeated and held onto their 5A No. 4 spot in our latest poll. They welcomed a Lakewood team that can score with anyone on Tuesday going to overtime. ThunderRidge needed Corey Seng’s last-second heroics as he drove for a game winning drive to seal it as part of his 23 points.
Top 10 4A match up and it looked to be the slug fest we expected as No. 5 Holy Family used a 15-8 fourth quarter comeback to beat No. 9 Sierra by 5 down in the Springs. KKTV did catch this sweet throw downby star CJ Jennigs who led Sierra in the loss.
Mitch Sundel scored 20 as Thompson Valley upset No. 8 D’Evelyn by 2!
Cherokee Trail moved up a spot to No. 6 this week and were tested immediately by Legend but pulled off the 46-42 win with Jaizec Lottie scoring 16.
Back-and-forth the entire way in this one as Chaparral had a new sophomore, Joe Dalton (20 points), lead the way as they pull off a big win over strong Arapahoe 68-63 at home.

Wednesday, Dec. 14

Junior Kirk Relford scored a game high 17 as Windsor were not kind guests to 5A visitor Gateway winning 55-47.
Had the opportunity to spend good time Prairie View senior Trey Marble last spring and this quality young man put up 26 points carrying the load but the Thunderhawks went down to Mountain Range 77-55.
Wheat Ridge traveled south to tangle with Harrison but came up short 65-62 while Quinzel Harding scored 18.
Ashton Rogers shot 50% from the field scoring 24 points to lead Coronado to victory over Air Academy.
After a strong showing at Eaglecrest Monday, Boulder bounced back with a win at Aurora Central 53-46 as Peter Chopra scored 14.

Midweek Thoughts

George Washington has certainly made a statement that the Patriots are back! They fully earned the No. 1 spot with early play and solidified that with impressive win over Smoky Hill adding to the resume.

Intrigued to see Sand Creek in 4A. The Scorpions took a surprising loss last week but came back with a vengeance as previously noted. Couldn’t keep up with Tuesday’s overall action across the state and it makes us hungry for more!

Stay tuned …