Ball Fever: Last-second heroics, out-of-state tourneys in boys basketball

Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com

Welcome back, folks!

Week 3 of the season was action-packed and we expect even more in Week 4 as we close in on the winter break.

Our last-second heroics along with teams competing well in- and out-of-state continues as we have No. 6 ThunderRidge and No. 7 Rock Canyon competing in the Kruel Classic (Florida) and numerous top squads battling in the Las Vegas Tarkanian Classic.

Let’s take a look:

The Look Back

Monday, Dec. 17

• Leading scorer Chase Hettinger hit double figures with 14 again but this time his fellow senior at Castle View, Bryson Lindsey, was lead man this night with 22 points and 8 rebounds in the win over Greeley West.
• Discovery Canyon dropped from our 4A Top 10 and it will be hard to get voted back in after going down to Canon City by 7. Senior Gabe Rall was “stat-stuffin” 24 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals in the win!
• Vista Peak got 20 points from junior AJ LaCabe along with 13 from “lefty” sophomore Curtis Stovall in home win by 13 over Prairie View.
• D’Evelyn got extremely DEFENSIVE only allowing 27 points to Sky View winning by 19! Nine points was the most allowed in any quarter.
• Evergreen received 30 votes in our latest poll and senior Theo Miller scored 16 points in the 10-point win over Conifer.
• Sean Bohuslavsky is averaging 17 points per game and scored 20 this night in a surprisingly big margin Liberty put on Bear Creek winning 70-38.
• Fairview is garnering many votes to break into our 5A Top 10 and their big guns Aaron Bokol and Ty Robinson combined for 39 points but it wasn’t enough to stop Fairview from pulling the upset 69-65!

Tuesday, Dec. 18

• Tuesday starts with Widefield’s upset of No. 6 Pueblo West behind 42 combined points from Darin Spratley and Randall Days…bith scoring 21!
• Arvada West got 5 votes in the 5A poll and continue to play strong ball and this night’s 3-point win took overtime to win on the road at Fossil Ridge.
• Mead has joined the 4A Top 10 at No. 10 flexing their muscle winning by 29 over Berthoud!
• Darius Hornbuckle back in the line up for Thomas Jefferson with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in the Spartans 80-53 win over Elizabeth. The big Cecil “twins” combined for 19 points in the win as well.
• Rock Canyon, up to No. 7 this week, is preparing for Florida tournament play and beat Doherty by 12 at home before their travel.
• Columbine enters the 5A Top-10 for first time this year at No. 9 but Legend’s 27-20 fourth quarter advantage sealed this one for the Titans by 5. Standout Luke O’Brien scored 27 for the Rebels in the loss.

Wednesday, Dec. 19

• We have a hand full of our big school boys teams at the Tarkanian Classic Las Vegas tournament and No. 5 Grandview got the winning going with 69-65 win over Coronado (NV) and junior point guard Liam Romero dropped 23 points in the win!
• Our state’s top-ranked Chaparral squad also got the Tark Classic started with a 62-55 win with Kobe Sanders 19 leading the way partnered with Bryce Matthews 18 points. Representing CO well!
• The Fever Crew had fun covering Wyoming commit Kenny Foster’s early-season heroics and he kept it rolling for No. 3 Smoky Hill hitting a “walk off” 3-pointer to give the Buffaloes a 67-65 win over visiting Regis. Our partner Aurora Sentinel caught a sweet angle of the last second bucket!

Boys Basketball: @KennyFoster22 connects on the winning 3-pointer from the corner to lift @SmokyHillHoops over @RegisJesuitHS 67-65 @SmokySports @ClarenceBuff @CCSDATHACT1 @Bball_CO @CHSAA @SentinelColo #copreps #sentinelpreps #aurora pic.twitter.com/r6XNZChWAv

— Sentinel Prep Sports (@aurorasports) December 20, 2018

• Two in a row for Vista Peak and it’s an impressive win at Heritage by 17, 65-48!
• A-Town “braggin rights” on the line in Aurora Central vs. Hinkley and Malachi Owens 17 points helped the Trojans take the game 66-51 with his five steals turning up big.
• “Aye Bellos!” … don’t look now but our beloved Montbello (FNE) Warriors are 8-2 and simply throttled visiting Sheridan putting up 93 total points along the way!
• Our 4A No. 2 squad advances to 9-0 after a 20-point win over Discovery Canyon! The Trojans started off 16-6 first quarter and kept on truckin!
• “Gotta” love a name like River Blessing and the Boulder Panther scored 21 points in the double overtime session vs. Bear Creek but it wasn’t enough as the Bears pulled off the 7-point win.
• Valor is also on the road in the tough Tarkanian Classic and almost made it another CO win but went down late by three points to Timpanogos out of Orem, UT. Let’s bounce back Eagles!

Mid-Week Thoughts

The Fever Crew has been blessed with the opportunity to coach some of our top players in national tournaments all over our country spring/summer and we know that our young men can compete with other states that are supposed “basketball hot beds” and we have no doubt that our CHSAA school teams could prove the same in Las Vegas, Texas, and Florida etc…

Can’t wait to jump into the end of Week 4 report and see how things play out, in and out of state, before our winter break.

Enjoy, hoop fans!