BOYS BASKETBALL: Class 1A Weekly Report
By kevin on Jan 25, 2012 with Comments 0
Simla and Cotopaxi have identical 10-1 records on the season but entering this week they have little in common. After winning the consolation championship last year, the Cubs have plenty of respect and are ranked sixth in Class 1A. Cotopaxi has had little post-season success over the years but is hoping to change that this year. Both teams face their most difficult weekends of the year and while Simla looks to climb closer to the number one spot in the rankings, Cotopaxi is hoping to simply crack the top ten.
We’ll start with Simla as the Cubs are challenged by 2nd ranked Limon (2A) on Thursday and then face a rematch of their consolation champion win over Shining Mountain when they meet the 5th ranked Lions on Saturday. Since losing to highly ranked Peyton in the season opener, the Cubs have rolled to ten straight wins including tight victories over Cheyenne Wells (55-51) and Elbert (55-54)
Limon represents a strong challenge with four players averaging double figures headed up by Jason Brown’s 15 points and nearly ten rebounds a game. Three other starters, Cameron Dohe, Gavin Liggett and Tyler Koehn all provide 11 points in the balanced attack. Simla counters with Dustin Jenkins who leads the team in scoring (15.6), steals (3.1) and assists (3.6). He dropped in a season high 23 points in the aforementioned one point win over Elbert.
Simla’s second leading scorer, Eric Fullmer, hasn’t played since the Elbert game. He chips in 11 points and three steals a game and his status for the weekend is unknown at this time. If he can’t go, the Cubs may ask a bit more of talented freshman Cody Norris who has been remarkably consistent for such a young player. Norris has scored between 10 and 12 points in all but two games this year and is averaging ten points for the season.
The rematch with Shining Mountain on Saturday could be a good one. The Cubs are missing leading scorer Chance Mitchell from that game but most of the top players for both teams will be back on the court this year. Simla downed the Lions 46-30 to take home the consolation crown last March.
Shining Mountain in fact has four returning starters from that game but not all of them are playing major roles this season as the Lions feature even more depth. Ray Fiegal and Billy Hussey both were in the starting lineup last March but this year are averaging a combined six points. The remaining two starters, Andrew Bremmer and Jason Ellinwood, are contributing however combining for 25 points a game.
The Lions seem to be in late season form already as they blasted Gilpin County 91-23 on Tuesday. Coach Enoch Miller’s team led 37-0 after the first quarter and 63-5 at halftime. Rory Siy topped the stat sheet with 20 points, Bremmer had 18, Alex Beal 15, and both Colin Cantwell and Garrett Johnson 11. Three of those five were reserves a year ago and Johnston is just a freshman.
The Shining Mountain schedule though has been light with Alexander Dawson likely marked as the best win. They downed the 2A opponent 59-46 but there’s not much else on their regular season resume. The schedule though is virtually the same as a year ago when they raced to the sixth place finish.
Cotopaxi plays three games in three days with difficult games against Custer County (Thursday) and 7th ranked Sierra Grande (Saturday) sandwiched around an expected Friday night win over Creede. The Pirates schedule includes two forfeit wins over Aguilar and a couple of victories against JV programs from larger schools. Their only loss came against South Park in game one of the season.
Cotopaxi will need to slow the pace against Sierra Grande. The Panthers are averaging over 74 points a game and the Pirates prefer not to get into a running game with them. Sierra Grande is coming off a 100 point effort in a blowout of Primero and has scored at least 85 in three other games. Their top three scorers are underclassmen with juniors Tomas Vigil (15.1) and Ricardo Howard (14.7) joining sophomore Adam Gomez (10.9) in double figures.
Cotopaxi’s top player is senior Mitch Gerk who’s averaging 11 points, six rebounds, five assists and nearly three steals. Classmate Dalton Aumon is a second double figure scorer (10.0) and leads the team in rebounding with eight. Denver Acres (9.4), Stewart Leatherbery (8.0) and Doug Troutman (7.9) provide depth offensively.
Before Cotopaxi can focus on Sierra Grande, they must deal with Custer County (2A) on Thursday. The Bobcats (7-4) has played a much more difficult schedule pushing 3A Florence to within six points and Sanford (#4 in 2A) to a nine point game. They also have wins over Elbert (44-43) and 2A Del Norte (54-49). Custer County also moved past South Park (64-49) and the Burros again are the only team to defeat Cotopaxi.
Holly came up short in their upset bid of 3rd ranked Walsh last week but the Wildcats can’t spend much time thinking about that loss as they have dates with 9th ranked Cheyenne Wells on Thursday and a rematch with 4th ranked Springfield on Friday. Even though the Wildcats lost 74-69 in overtime, their first game with Springfield is among the best in the division this year. It came in the third place game of the Lamar Holiday Tournament.
The game was extremely even except for one phase; the free throw line. Springfield connected on 20 of 33 from the line while Holly attempted only three for the entire night. The Wildcats hit six of 19 from beyond the arc compared to six of 20 for the Longhorns. Holly won the rebound battle by just one (44-43).
Holly senior Shannon Rushton drained a three pointer to send the first game into overtime and he finished with 15 points. Jace Massar and Drew Thompson led the team with 16 with Tylor Swopes adding ten. With five three pointers on the night, Saul Baker led Springfield with a game high 23 points. Michael Crane (15) and Todd Hutches (12) also reached double digits.
Baker dropped in another three treys in Springfield’s easy 67-24 win over Boise City Oklahoma on Tuesday night. Many other players also got involved as Crane and Hutches each scored 11 and Brady Humphrey added ten including two three-pointers. Hutches also contributed seven rebounds and six steals while Colin Loflin (7) and Michael Sanchez (8) combined for 15 boards.
Holly’s late season success may depend on the play of Jace Massar. After missing all of the action since Christmas, the center returned to the lineup last week and chipped in seven points in the loss to Walsh. He’s totaled 14 points in the three game since his return but was averaging 10.2 before the break.
Cheyenne Wells featured a great inside game a year ago but is more guard oriented this year with junior Trey Brown (15.5) and sophomore Matthew Sanders (14.3) pacing the offense. Both have connected on 28 three-pointers for the season. Springfield is very similar to Holly as they’ve played several highly ranked teams but very close but have yet to post a victory. Recent losses have come against Springfield and Simla by four points apiece and early in the season, they were taken out by Walsh and Deer Trail.
Top ranked Caliche continues to roll through the schedule collecting easier than expected wins over Fleming (77-48) and Peetz (70-51) in the past week. Senior Joel Edler continues his hot scoring pace with 22 against Fleming and then topping that with a 30 point night versus Peetz. Freshman Austin Yahn chipped in 13 and senior Andrew Roche returned from injury with 10 points in the Fleming win while Mitch Davison knocked in ten against Peetz.
Up this week are two good tests against 2A opponents Yuma and Holyoke. We recapped their seasons in-depth in the 2A update and both are playing very good basketball right now. Win or lose, the Buffs as always will benefit from the step up in classification during their post-season run.
2nd ranked Pawnee looks to lock up the Northern Conference title by beating Fleming for a second time. Those two meet at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling this Friday. Pawnee earned a 69-53 win in round one behind 24 points from Brye Brunelle and 16 from Kevin Shoemaker. Brunelle was three of five from beyond the arc while Shoemaker missed only two of nine attempts on the inside. Fleming had just one player in double figures that night with Tyler Vandenbark scoring 20. The Wildcats though shot just 19 of 65 from the field in the loss including four of 17 from beyond the arc.
Fleming is 8-3 on the season with two losses to Caliche and the previous matchup to Pawnee so all three setbacks are against unbeaten opponents who are ranked in the top two. They did score a good win over Prairie (51-43) in the follow-up game to Caliche.
Vail Christian and Plateau Valley are two teams looking to break into the rankings and both have quality opponents on the weekend. The two square off on Saturday both play 2A West Grand (8-2) as well. The Saints face the Mustangs Thursday with the Cowboys meeting them the next night.
The Saint whipped West Grand 72-49 in the season opener so they need to avoid looking past a West Grand club vastly improved from that night. Vail Christian outscored the Mustangs by seven points in each of the first three quarters as they slowly built a commanding lead.
At 6-4, Vail Christian’s record is misleading and they could be a force in the post-season. They’re unbeaten against 1A opponents with every loss coming against either a 2A or 4A program including two losses to 7th ranked Meeker (2A). They’re coming off an easy 67-37 win over in-city rival Vail Mountain on Tuesday and are led in scoring by Fernando Hernandez (15.0) and Robby Bowles (12.1).
Plateau Valley has won three in a row since a 17 point setback to Meeker. Teddy Grundy (24.7) scores about four of every ten points for the team despite being the focus of every opponent’s defense. The senior tallied 29 points against Soroco and 25 against Ridgway last week so he enters a key stretch for the Cowboys with a hot hand. Kyler Smith (14.3) has reached double figures in each of the past five games.
Almost lost in the shuffle of a great lineup of games are the matchups between 8th ranked Hi Plains and Bethune in the YWKC and Haxtun against Wiggins in the Lower Platte. Hi Plains topped Bethune 63-51 in a non-conference test before Christmas but the outcome of their Thursday meeting could determine the league championship and number one district seed. Complete stats are not available for either team but through six games, the Patriots were led by 6-3 sophomore Avery Marzloff with 15 points a game. The Patriots have won seven straight since a surprising two point loss to Kit Carson. Bethune’s only in-state loss is against Hi Plains and they’ll have a five game winning streak at tip-off.
Haxtun and Wiggins are both striving for consistency. The Bulldogs (6-5) have not won more than two straight all season but they’ve haven’t lost two in a row either. Wiggins looked like a potential state championship contender in a big win at Akron but has since lost two straight at home including a 53-41 decision to Yuma on Tuesday. Haxtun dropped a 43-39 contest to Chase County Nebraska the same night.
Filed Under: Boys Basketball • Weekly Previews
