DENVER – The Timnath boys basketball team brought the brooms.

After watching the girls score a big win over Colorado Academy, the boys matched that feat by outlasting Lamar 42-40 in the Class 4A boys basketball Great 8 at the Denver Coliseum.

Trailing by one point entering the fourth quarter, Davis Walter hit a massive 3-pointer to give the Cubs a 40-38 lead with about a minute remaining. They forced a Lamar turnover and Max Roselle hit a wide open layup to put the Cubs up by 4.

Walter led Timnath with 11 points, going 3-for-4 from 3-point range.

Lamar was paced by junior Jacob Dunning who scored a game-high 19.

The Cubs move on to Friday’s Final 4 where they await the winner of Kent Denver and Denver West.

Peak to Peak 57, Aspen 50

Peak to Peak’s boys basketball team is headed to its first Final 4.

It hasn’t always been pretty for the often-injured Pumas this winter. But maybe that’s been the key.

“It’s been a year of just getting hit by some punches and learning to get up,” Peak to Peak coach Evan Eschmeyer said. “That’s what we talk about. Everyone in life takes punches. It’s really about how fast can you get up and throw another one back.”

On Wednesday, the Pumas were at the Denver Coliseum — the place many thought they’d be a year ago when they won 22 games and earned 4A’s 2 seed before being unexpectedly cut down in the second round.

This time, they entered the playoffs beat up and with nine losses — three times as many as it finished with last season. As 4A’s 14 seed, they shocked No. 3 Holy Family to advance out of the second round last weekend, then announced themselves to the rest of the state’s basketball community with a 57-50 win over No. 6 Aspen in the Great 8.

“We’ve gone through so much adversity with injuries and all that type of stuff,” Burton said. “So coming to these games and, whether we’re down or we’re up, just staying level-headed is what we’ve learned to do all season.”

Burton himself faced adversity earlier in the month after being in a car wreck ahead of the team’s season finale agaist Stargate School. Eschmeyer said Burton was taken to the emergency room but fortunately did not sustain a serious injury.

In fact, Burton shot 10 of 14 from the field and led all scorers with 23 points later that night in a win.

“Tysen has always been mentally tough as nails,” Eschmeyer said of Burton, who had a game-high 25 points on Wednesday. “I think the difference this year is he’s just developed a feel for things. Point guard is a hard position. He always had the athleticism of a high Division I point guard, but he came to the game a little late, like in middle school. So now he’s really developed a feel for the game that’s exceptional. And wherever he lands in college, they’re getting a steal because his ceiling is through the roof.”

With Burton, the Pumas are the big unknown left in the 4A bracket — the double-digit seed nobody wants to face.

Wednesday, Burton hit a 3-pointer to beat the first-quarter horn, tying the game at 11, then added another 11 points in the second to give the Pumas a five-point lead at halftime.

Cole Boonstra added 13 points and Ian Kalenzi had 11 for Peak to Peak. The two helped spark a 14-2 run from the final minute of the second quarter to the 3:04 mark of the third to push the advantage to 17.

Aspen pulled within 54-50 on the back of a 13-0 spurt in the fourth, but the Pumas held on.

On Friday, Peak to Peak faces the winner of No. 2 Montezuma-Cortez and No. 10 University.