Ball Fever: A few upsets steal the show in boys basketball

Well if we’ve learned anything so far this season, it’s that you’ve gotta bring it every night!

A Look Back

Monday, Jan. 9

Rock Canyon's Tyson Gilbert (1) drives on Columbine's Buck Ramming. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

Rock Canyon, now No. 6 in our poll, pulled out their usual defense and offense will only get better as transfer Tyson Gilbert scores 16 in win over Columbine.
Nice stat line for J. Pfaffinger, who led the way for Fort Collins over Thompson Valley with 23 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists.
Junior Alfredo Chaucer helped Lincoln pull away from Prairie View with 19 points Monday. Not be out done, junior Kam Vincel had a “monsta” 30-point, 10-rebound double-double on 10-11 shooting in the loss. Impressive!
Upset City! Denver East moved up to No. 3 in our poll this week and got 23 points from new addition Daylen Kountz, but seems they are still trying to figure things out as a new roster and got surprised by Lakewood, which beat them 90-77 in their visit to the Tigers territory! Speaking of figuring things out, Colorado Mesa-bound senior Kolton Peterson commented on Lakewood being one team when on the same page vs. when not: “We took it upon ourselves to stay together and bring it against East,” Peterson said in our Ball Fever midweek chat. The Tigers were disappointed severely after a bad loss to Chatfield last week. “We just played soft and were not engaged” against Chatfield Peterson added. “The loss Saturday (to Chatfield) was a wake up call for us. We are two completely different teams when we play together.”

Tuesday, Jan. 10

Heritage took care of business beating Northglenn by more than 30 and Jeff Tucker took in the action.
Junior Tyler McGinnis scored 17 and Windsor earned a road victory at Skyline by 7 points.
Luke Johnson led the way for Longmont scoring 19 points in home league win over Niwot. Thomas Bounds, a sophomore, scored 19 as well in the loss.
Mountain Range received its first votes in our 5A poll this week but Fairview was having none of it with senior Sam Grad scoring 15 points as the Knights held on for the tight 2 point win.
Monarch jumped out 21-4 and never looked back winning big 73-47 over Horizon. Monarch is starting to get it under Coach Brenning!
Loveland held a scoring Sabercats offense to only 17 second half points but it wasn’t enough to complete the comeback as Fossil Ridge held on for the low 47-42 win.
Senior Sam Foster was “cookin,” scoring 28 points for Broomfield in 15 point over Poudre.
“Cookin” in scoring out west was Boulder’s Luke Wilson scoring 29 big ones as the Panthers beat Legacy 60-55.
Errrrrrybody got in the act when FNE Montbello put up 96 points in blowout of Thornton. Senior Aaris Bonds scored 19 to lead.
Sierra, just outside of our 4A top 10, gave up ONLY 4 points to Woodland Park in the first half and cruised to the win.
A couple new additions to the Regis roster but they found Aurora sledding no easier beating Hinkley 60-52.
A rare off shooting night for Brevin Brimble but he still scored 19 leading No. 9 Doherty to win over Pine Creek.
No surprise in the Fever camp to see Matt Johnson Jr. heat up and he did just that scoring 31 points but the Trailblazers won 71-66 over Rangeview in the A-Town showdown.
No. 6 Mead got 23 points from Michael Ward beating Frederick by 21.
The Huskies went into Lincoln and got a solid road win for the Douglas County program 80-70.
No. 9 Holy Family played everyone in blow out of Berthoud and soph Kyle Helbig scored 13.
The Chaparral young guns didn’t have enough as they faced a George Washington squad that wasn’t happy after losing the No. 1 spot and falling one spot. The Patriots put up 92 in the nonleague home game.

Wednesday, Jan. 11

Chatfield raced to 19 wins in Jeffco and Dennis Pleuss caught their thumping of foe Arvada West.
4A top-10! Pueblo South, now No. 10 in 4A, won a serious road victory at No. 4 Vista Peak. The Colts just battle and can grind out wins, folks! Katie Pickrell caught photos.
Sand Creek, now No. 3 4A, jumped out 16-9 on Discovery Canyon and didn’t look back winning by 20.
After a disappointing start to tough Centennial League play, Smoky Hill has two nice wins in a row, this time taking down Overland 68-63.
Cherry Creek breaks into our 5A poll at No. 7 this week and our Fever crew loves the fact they have different players stepping up each time out. Senior Rashon Johnson scored 19 in the win over Mullen this night. Jack Eberhard has photos.
Mountain Vista 65-52 over Fairview in nonleague action!
Lewis-Palmer and Falcon were “runnin & gunnin” in this one. The Rangers win 90-80.
No. 5 Eaglecrest rode their star’s 23 points and Colbey Ross led the squad to another league win at Arapahoe.
4A top-10 bout folks!! D’Evelyn had to cherish this one knocking off No. 1 Valor 70-60. Valor just became No. 1 and may lose that spot and D’Evelyn looking to move up!
No let down for Lakewood after their HUGE upset of Denver East as senior Kolton Peterson scored 23 points (six 3-pointers!) beating Columbine by 17.

Midweek Thoughts

Oh folks, we have to show up and play EVERY night. Early in this week we’ve seen our top 5A and 4A squads already lose and we expect that to continue.

No clear cut favorites as we are finding out more about teams like D’Evelyn, and Lakewood beating what we thought was an East squad coming into power speaks volumes.

Our midweek Ball Fever chat with Kolton Peterson of Lakewood brought the word “together” to the table a few times. Teams are getting bolstered with transfers and new additions but that may not gel as easily as expected!

Regis brought on new players midseason this week but only mustered an eight-point win over Hinkley, at home, which was expected to be a coming out party.

The Fever crew keeps a theory that our best ball is not played in weeks 5 and 6 just after the holidays and winter break. This week showed a bit of that, but trust that rosters will be tweaked, talent will rise, and we are in store for some awesome league play setting up tourney play!

Stay tuned …