Centennial -Maybe if the Arapahoe Warriors girls basketball team knows its new coach, Ron Burgin, is ready to settle down, they will too.
Burgin followed a state title at ThunderRidge with one-year coaching stints at the University of Colorado and then Smoky Hill before settling at Arapahoe after Scott Hastings’ departure.
On Tuesday night, Arapahoe followed a solid first quarter with two erratic quarters before settling down to upend Cherry Creek 56-51 in a Class 5A nonleague game at Arapahoe’s Sitting Eagle Gymnasium. The Warriors did it with just seven players suited up and five on the bench with injuries.
“I’m here to stay,” Burgin said. “We’ve really been trying to figure things out here. My style is kind of wild, up and down the court, and they are still getting used to it.”
Arapahoe, ranked No. 9 in The Denver Post/9News poll, is on the right track with a 4-0 record in the young season. Cherry Creek dropped to 1-1.
Allie Hastings and Caitlin Durkin scored 14 points each for Arapahoe, and Kate Denning added 13 points, five steals and four blocks.
Allison Scholbe and Keley Anderson led the Bruins with nine points apiece, but four Cherry Creek players fouled out down the stretch.
“We need to buckle down and sharpen up. I just told them that we lost to seven kids,” Cherry Creek coach Missy Steck said.
Down 32-29 at halftime, Arapahoe held the Bruins to just four points in a sloppy third quarter, and the Warriors took a two- point lead. Cherry Creek’s Anna Senn pulled her team within a point, 40-39 with seven minutes left, with a long 3-pointer, but that is as close as the Bruins would get.
Meaghan Kenna and Denning dropped in back-to-back shots to stretch the lead, and then Sarah Barczuk split the Bruins defense for a basket before Denning added another from inside to make the score 48-42 with 3:50 left to play.
From there it was mostly a game of free throws.
“It’s part of the process. By mid-January we should be twice as good,” Burgin said.
