4A boys basketball: Team effort powers Lewis-Palmer over Pueblo South for fifth title in team history

DENVER – All season, the Lewis-Palmer and Pueblo South boys basketball teams had established themselves as the best in the state. It was only fitting that they would meet at the Denver Coliseum with the Class 4A title on the line.

And whatever hype the matchup had built in less than 24 hours was delivered the second the game got underway.

Eli Robinson led with 19 points as the Rangers came away with the 61-53 win to claim their second state title in the last four years. It was an emotional win when considering that the game was played two years to the day that the state basketball tournaments were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I still hurt for those four teams because they didn’t get that opportunity,” coach Bill Benton said. “It really does make you value when you do get these chances. We talked about it. No regrets. Don’t walk off the floor wishing anything because you don’t know what happens next.”

What happens next for the Rangers is celebration, then rest. And they’ve earned it. They knew coming into the game it was going to be a battle against a Colts team that hadn’t been dealt a loss all season. Its fast pace was the primary concern on the defensive end for Benton, so when he needed to control the pace he again put his guys into a zone.

“We went a little 1-3-1 and gave them a bit of a different look,” Benton said. “We know they saw a lot of our 2-3 last night.”

The effort on defense was always going to be the most crucial part of this equation. The Colts had shown flashes during the year of a top-notch offensive team. They went over 100 points on more than one occasion and were more than happy to let a fast game come to them.

So the Rangers accepted the challenge of slowing them down.

“We locked in on defense,” Robinson said. “I think they had 53. Our goal was to hold to under 50 so for a really team that plays really fast like South, I think it was the defensive end.”

The Rangers led by just a point at halftime, and they knew that establishing the tempo early in the third quarter was going to tilt the scales their way for the remainder of the game. They started the second half on a 6-0 thanks to two baskets, a defensive rebound and an assist from Cam Lowe. He scored 15 for the Rangers, 13 of which came after halftime.

“We knew we had to win what we call the first three minutes,” Lowe said. “It was important, we were only up one and we needed a gap.”

They got it.

They took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter and despite a valiant effort from Maurcie Austin, who scored 11 of his game-high 25 points in the final eight minutes, it was a lead that the Colts couldn’t overcome.

A win for South would’ve been monumental as coach Shannan Lane would’ve been the first female coach of a boys basketball team to win a state title.

This is the fifth state championship in team history for the Rangers and fourth in 10 years. It has never been done by a single player in the program as the L-P culture is built on a team mentality.

“I think if you look at our 28 games, we’ve had those nights where it’s this guy’s night, or that guy’s night,” Benton said. “Nobody worries that it wasn’t my night. It was our night. And that’s why we have this.”