Ball Fever: Standout boys hoops performances continue in early 2017

Hoop fans! Midweek Ball Fever was all about upsets, and they continued into the weekend as well.

A few quick observations: The Centennial League is toughest we see and will be a battle to the end, ThunderRidge and Chatfield are “quietly” trucking along, if that’s possible, Denver South can shoot you out of the gym and has won seven in a row, D’Evelyn is legit, and 4A is as wide open as we can remember.

Let’s check out some more of the standout early 2017 performances!

A Look Back

Thursday, Jan. 12

Liberty making a statement in league play and Dan Mohrmann was on it as they handled Rampart.
Junior Marcus Winston came to town and scored 14 for Pueblo East but it was not enough to stop Denver South in the Rebels’ house as they won by 11.
Pine Creek also traveled in to town and handled Gateway easily jumping out to 23-11 first quarter advantage en route to 19-point win.
“Stat stuffin?”: how about that top PG CJ Jennings 29 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals in Sierra’s rout of Mitchell!
FRESHMAN ALERT: Lincoln needed to get on the winning side of things again and rode freshman Ty Foster’s 16 points for the 22 point win over Aurora Central.
Widefield and Elizabeth were doing some scoring in their 79-76 battle won by the Gladiators behind Tre Pierre’s 22 points. Junior Gage Smith dropped 32 in the loss!

Friday, Jan. 13

Dakota Ridge, looking for steady improvement, gets it done vs. Pomona.
Northridge has entered our 4A poll as No. 9 and celebrated by doubling Centaurus 84-42!
No. 2 GW bounced back and beat Rangeview in a dominant performance.
Luke Wilson did a ton of the scoring with 29 as Boulder cooled off Mountain Range 45-40.
Legend stretched their lead on Castle View this night our Fever Crew partner “Coach K” Kevin Keyser was on the scene.
Jalen Sanders led four Eagles in double figures with 29 as No. 1 Valor thumped Wheat Ridge 82-50.
These young Buffaloes are hitting their stride as Smoky Hill gets their third “Centennial Tough” league win in a row blasting Mullen by 22.
Senior Michael Ward put up 20 points as No. 6 Mead beat Skyline by 18.
Doherty wants to run the Springs 5A table and took down rival Palmer.
No mercy for Littleton in their game vs. No. 5 Golden who won 74-30!
Sophomore Kyle Helbig scored 14 points in No. 8 Holy Family’s win over Windsor.
5A top-10 match up! Grandview got a last-second steal and bucket from Kain Mack to upset No. 5 Eaglecrest in brutal Centennial league play. Mack finished the game with 9 and all-star guards Lachaun Duhart and Colbey Ross scored 22 and 24 points respectively.
No. 3 Sand Creek poured it on Falcon 106-66!
D’Evelyn, No. 7 in 4A, had senior Jason Gardner score 24 points in 84-67 win over Standley Lake.
Jake Belknapp stepped up with his first 30 point game of 2017 but not enough to get Mountain Vista over the hump vs. Chaparral.
Hunter Maldonado scores 26 for steadily improving Vista Ridge in 60-33 win over Air Academy.

Saturday, Jan. 14

Don’t look now but Denver South has won 7 games in a row and just beat No. 8 Holy Family 71-55. “Live by the three die by the three” is a hoops cliche’ that often reads true and on this night the Rebels Tucker Cargile and Connor Nelson combined for ELEVEN of the teams FIFTEEN three pointers! On the seven-game winning streak Cargile was part of our Ball Fever chat stating, “Our positive team has been key throughout the season. We all knew if we could continue to lift each other up and believe in each other’s abilities the shots would fall and wins would pile up.” Our Fever Crew had the pleasure of coaching Tucker in spring/summer ball over the last few years and there’s no surprise that he hit six three’s in one game … we’ve seen it over and over! Awesome young man on and off the floor.
No individual player and no team quite as hot as 5A No. 1 ThunderRidge and Corey Seng. Joking with Corey on social media we’ve had the opportunity to use our phrase “You Got Seng’d!” as Corey has strung together impressive 30 or more point performances vs. some of our state’s best competition. The bigger the stage, the more it seems this young man steps up! In Part II of our Ball Fever chat this week we did our best to pull some “30 piece” info out of Seng but he was all about the TEAM stating, “Everyone on the team is really buying into their role, and that’s why I feel we’ve been so successful! We are very long across our lineup and that’s helped us on the defensive end.” With that type of team defense and Seng’s scoring ability the Grizzlies will go far. This Saturday they went into a tough Regis gym and won by 5 … and yes, you guessed it: Cory “Seng’d” the Raiders with 33 points!
Arapahoe started well and were hitting the boards early but Max Potter caught Cherry Creek turning it on in second half.
No. 2 Pueblo West got a strong 7 point win over 3A No. 1 Colorado Springs Christian.
No. 4 Chatfield, as hot as any squad, used a 24-5 fourth quarter advantage to pull away from Ralston Valley 80-43.
Peter Chopra scored 14 and Boulder defense shut down Northglenn 66-31.
4A top-10 Match! Northridge visited Vista PEAK and the Bison were unfriendly hosts as Marquiece Johnson scored 20 points in the 16-point win.
Junior Goy Wang poured in 26 points as Overland got a tough win over Cherokee Trail.
Alex Sandstrom closed out our week 6 coverage scoring 28 points for No. 6 Mead in big win over game Longmont.