TENACIOUS 10: A LOOK AT THE WEEK’S MATCHUPS FOR REMAINING PREP BASKETBALL PLAYOFF TEAMS
Lyons girls basketball celebrates after winning the Class 3A Mile High/foothills district tournament on Saturday.
Twenty local prep basketball teams in the 6A-4A classifications entered their respective state tournaments last week. All of the smaller schools in the 3A, 2A and 1A ranks, meanwhile, battled it out in districts for their shot at single-elimination regional play. Only 10 teams remain, split evenly between the smaller and larger classifications.
All of the 6A teams have been eliminated, as Mead, Frederick, Peak to Peak and Holy Family round out the representation in 4A and 5A. Dawson, Prospect Ridge Academy, Lyons and Twin Peaks make up the local faces for the upcoming regional slate.
All Great 8 teams (4A-6A) will spar at the Denver Coliseum on Friday and Saturday, while the regional qualifiers (1A-3A) will coalesce at various host sites.
Much like the Frederick girls, the Mead boys will have their work cut out for them. To date, the Mavericks (19-6) have enjoyed strong gameplay from Matthew Angelo (15 ppg) and Dominic Mclawrence (13.2 ppg), even as the whole team excels in the scoring initiative (58.5 points) and sharing the ball (11.7 assists). The Nighthawks (23-2), however, are another animal completely. Northfield boasts a strong offense that nets 72.6 points and 14.8assists on average, meaning the Mavericks will need to find a way to shut down its offense, especially inside the arc. Only 444 of Northfield’s 1,669points have come from long range. a six-game winning streak toward the end of the season as Jackson Parker (14.9 ppg), Peter Ernst (11.6) and Isaiah Tu (9.6) made up the majority of their scoring. While they only averaged 35.9 points a night, the Mustangs excelled at crashing the glass with 24.9rebounds per contest. Salida (18-4), on the other hand, has displayed tenacity through its scoring (60.9 points), rebounding (30.6), ball-sharing (12.2assists) and defense (12steals), making it hard to defend and score against.
The Miners (8-14) earned a place in the postseason by virtue of their strength of schedule and placed third in last week’s Metro/ Confluence/lower Platte district tournament. Kayah Robbins (15.8 ppg) accounts for nearly half of the team’s 33.2 points-per-night average, as well as 12.3 of the team’s typical 28.9 rebounds. They’ll face a tough test against Highland (16-6). Briza Flores (18.6 ppg) makes up for a large chunk of the team’s 52.6 point scoring average, and the team also does well on the glass (33.6rebounds) and steals (17.4).