If Wednesday night’s 43-37 victory over 10th-ranked Chatfield didn’t convince George Washington’s players of first- year coach Tom Bancroft’s emphasis on playing defense, nothing will.
The inconsistent Patriots, who lost 57-47 to the Chargers on Jan. 7 in the Denver Prep League Showcase, turned the tables with a suffocating defense, particularly in the fourth quarter, as they rallied from an eight-point deficit in the third quarter.
George Washington (7-7 as it heads into DPL play) held Chatfield scoreless for the first 6 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter, then forced three consecutive turnovers and converted them into six unanswered points after the Chargers’ Casey Black ended his team’s drought by hitting a 3-point basket for a brief 35-33 lead.
Chatfield missed its first eight shots and finished 2-of-11 while committing seven turnovers in its five-point fourth quarter.
“We just played great defense,” GW senior Christian Teague said.
“We played really hard defense and they didn’t have a chance to do anything,” added Stan Jones, the Patriots’ 6-foot-8 sophomore.
Those comments are music to Bancroft’s ears.
“The defense was beautiful to me,” said the veteran coach, whose most recent stint was at Littleton. “The offense is going to take longer to come around with a new coach, so I’ve emphasized that defense wins games. This game should be a good selling point to them.
“We were very, very careful with our matchups. When they put five shooters in, we called a timeout right away. We had great matchups and ID’d the shooters and got to the shooters when we had to.”
Chatfield, 9-4 with losses to Aurora Central and Chaparral and coming off a big win over Jefferson County League preseason favorite Arvada West last Friday, never did get its offense untracked.
The Chargers shot 32 percent from the floor and Black, the senior guard and the team’s leading scorer, struggled in particular. Black, who had 18 points in the win over GW, shot 2-of-11 from the floor and finished with a season-low five points, 11 fewer than his average.
“I don’t know what to say,” Chatfield coach Steve Schimpeler said. “The good looks we did have we didn’t hit, and we forced a lot. Talk about the wheels absolutely falling off …”
The Patriots never led until Teague followed a basket by Jones with two free throws for a 33-32 advantage with 3:41 left.
Chatfield 11 11 10 5 – 37
George Washington 7 8 14 14 – 43
Chatfield – Reiter 0 0-0 0, Black 2 0-0 5, Kenshalo 3 0-3 6, Murphy 2 0-0 6, Kannegieter 1 1-2 3, Beigie 1 0-0 2, Bishop 2 0-0 4, Dolan 2 0-0 5, Lavergne 0 0-0 0, Collins 3 0-1 6. Totals 16 1-6 37.
George Washington – White 1 3-6 5, Brown 0 0-0 0, Millard 2 3-4 8, Drumgo 1 0-0 2, Stokes 2 2-2 6, Jones 3 4-6 10, Teague 4 3-3 12, Johnson 0 0-0 0, Gilbert 0 0-0 0, Carter 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 15-21 43.
3-pt. goals – Murphy 2, Black, Dolan; Millard, Teague. Total fouls – Chatfield 23, George Washington 17. Fouled out – None. Technicals – None.
