Grandview boys basketball beats George Washington to claim first title
DENVER — It’s no secret that Wolves hunt in packs. And that’s exactly what the Grandview Wolves did Saturday night. Hours after the girls won their second-straight basketball title, the boys followed suit.
A 57-52 win over George Washington completed the Class 5A basketball sweep for Grandview. This is the first state championship for the boys.
“I just believed that my team would win,” Grandview coach Michael Rogers said. “I’m just blessed with a great group of kids and I just knew we were going to win.
Among that great group was Dayne Prim, who led the Wolves with 20 points in the winning effort. He shot 9-for-10 from the field and had similar performances all the way through the tournament.
“I was just coming out to try and play every single game just like I do every single night,” Prim said. “I come out here, do what’s best for my team, be a team player, be the leader, lead my guys and we got the dub.”
There were nine total lead changes in the first half an neither team held a lead larger than five points. The Patriots were briefly up 24-19, but a 3-point basket from Lean Ramiro followed by a steal and a fast break layup from Tyler Unger evened the score again.
Jon’il Fugett scored four of George Washington’s last five points in the first half, including a drive and lay in with less than 10 seconds left on the clock. That basket gave the Patriots a 29-26 lead at the half.
“This is a regular season game in the Centennial League,” Rogers said about the constant lead changes. “That’s why you play in the best league in the state and you play those guys twice.”
The Wolves cut into the three-point lead once again with another 3-pointer from Unger. On the next possession, Calib McGil navigated his way down low to give Grandview its first lead since it was 15-14.
Mo Daillo tied things up for George Washington before Dayne Prim gave the Wolves a two-point edge after three quarters.
That’s the way the Wolves started working. Prim had been a beast for Grandview all playoffs so when a bucket was needed, the ball went straight into Prim’s hands.
“He has the heart of a champion,” Rogers said. “He came out tonight and said ‘get on my back, I got you guys.'”
He added a layup to give Grandview a 44-38 lead, its biggest of the game with just under five minutes remaining in regulation.
Heading into the fourth quarter, George Washington had made 12 of its 14 free throw attempts, but had three key misses as they tried to erase the Grandview lead.
That wasn’t the case for the Wolves as McGil and Ben Boone made timely free throws to once again push the lead to six points and ultimately seal the game for the Wolves.
“Practicing all season and going and getting free throws in all season, it just took us all back to Grandview,” Boone said. “This is just shoot around, this is just like we’re at Grandview and it worked out for us.”
This is just the third time that a 5A school has claimed both boys and girls basketball titles in the same season. ThunderRidge did back in 2003 and Regis Jesuit did it in 2009.
The Grandview guys said that watching the girls battle back against Regis Jesuit to claim a second-straight title inspired them to go their own.
“Of course they did,” Prim said. “And we’ve never done this at Grandview. We only had one boys championship and that’s in football (in 2007). We had never been to the championship, we never won one. This is history.”
The school was already planning on a championship celebration, now the scale is just going to be a bit bigger. For winning two championships in one night, all the Wolves will celebrate as a team
“We’ll do it together,” Boone said.
They’ll do it as a pack.
