No. 9 Valor boys hoops stays hot, closes in on 6A Jeffco title

ARVADA — Valor Christian’s boys basketball team has picked the right time to reel off its longest winning streak of the season.

The Eagles — No. 9 in the Class 6A CHSAANow.com rankings — won their sixth straight 6A Jeffco League game in dominating fashion Thursday night. Valor took a 75-46 road victory against Arvada West to edge closer to the conference title.

“It means a lot,” Valor junior Eli Kim said of the Eagles one step away from winning the league title. “We really want to get a good seed for the state playoffs. That is huge for us and hopefully win a state championship.”

Valor (14-7, 9-1) has a 2-game lead over A-West (15-6, 7-3) and Ralston Valley (14-6, 6-3) in what has been a tight race for the conference title this season. The Eagles just need a home win over either Chatfield (Wednesday, Feb. 15) or Lakewood (Friday, Feb. 17) to claim the 6A Jeffco League title.

It would be the Eagles second league title in three years in boys hoops.

“We can’t let up. Everything we do bridges from one thing to the next,” Valor coach Dennis Burrage Sr. said about closing the regular season against Chatfield and Lakewood. “Those games are important. They will be treated as playoff games for us.”

After losing to A-West by 2 points on Valor’s home court Jan. 23, the Eagles defintely had revenge on their minds. Valor jumped out to an early 20-6 lead late in the first quarter and never looked back.

“They are a tough team, but we never want to think someone is better than us,” Kim said of getting revenge against A-West.

Kim poured in a game-high 26 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Valor shot the ball extremely well draining 11 3-pointers on the night. The Eagles has eight 3-pointers in a big 19-point win Tuesday night against Ralston Valley.

“We have always been a strong 3-point shooting team,” Kim said. “We just had to get really confident. The last two games we’ve really hit our stretch. This game was a true testament to that.”

Senior Hunter Guiles had a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter for the Eagles. Sophomore Cole Scherer also finished with three 3-pointers. Seniors Sam Rollins, Evan Gomez and sophomore Brady Wynja all came off the bench to add a 3-pointer each.

“We work on that. The game has changed,” Burrage said of the 3-point shooting by the Eagles. “The floor is spread out. We want to work inside and get paint touches. We want to work inside-out and that gets us open shooters. When those are open we are going to take them every single time.”

A-West was led by senior Jasper Padia who finished with a team-high 20 points. No other Wildcat was able to reach double-digit points as A-West was held to its third lowest scoring output of the season.

The Wildcats will try to prevent from suffering back-to-back losses for the first time this year when they face Bear Creek on the road Saturday. A-West closes out its regular season at home on Friday, Feb. 17, against Columbine before the 32-team 6A state tournament begins.