Littleton – Playing their fourth game in six days, the Smoky Hill Buffaloes were happy to take a win of any variety Tuesday night.
The fact that it came against powerhouse ThunderRidge and made the Buffs champions of the second annual Class 5A Tip-Off Classic tournament was a nice bonus.
However, considering the Grizzlies were missing six players, including standout Matt Bouldin, Smoky Hill’s pedestrian 64-50 victory was rather anticlimactic.
“Sluggish,” Buffs guard Will Figures said with a shake of his head. “We knew Bouldin wasn’t playing, and we wanted to focus on doing the right thing, (but) we started off slow. We just had to grind it out.”
Smoky Hill (3-1) never trailed at Heritage High School but was unable to blow the game open as the Grizzlies (3-1) hung around despite getting points from just four players until the final minute.
Figures sank three 3-pointers to score a team-high 18 points while junior Scott May and senior guard Kevin Daugherty finished with 12 apiece to clinch the eight-team tournament.
But the biggest buzz was who wasn’t playing.
Bouldin, a Gonzaga recruit, rolled his ankle in Monday’s victory over Legacy and was wearing a protective boot Tuesday night. According to coach Joe Ortiz, Bouldin is a “longshot” to play Friday and will be fortunate to play before the Christmas break.
“We were all depressed today because of Matt,” Ortiz said.
Fresh off helping the Grizzlies’ football team to its second consecutive 4A state championship, senior James Tucker stepped up in Bouldin’s absence to score a game-high 19 points while pulling down nine rebounds.
Tucker played big in the paint early on before driving to the hoop and knocking down a 3-pointer from the wing in the second half.
The standout linebacker was the only Grizzlies’ player to score in each quarter. Sophomore Zach Tiedgen (17 points) scored in just the second and fourth quarters and senior T.J. Robinson missed all 12 of his first-half shots and finished with seven points, six rebounds and a game-high three blocked shots.
“(Tucker) is a better player than people say, and so is Zach. Zach Tiedgen is a player,” Ortiz said. “Both were very positive.”
The Buffs would lead by 13 points on four occasions but couldn’t stretch it out until early in the fourth quarter when Daugherty’s 3-pointer made it 49-35.
