Aurora – Finally, in the fourth quarter, the offensive chaos was controlled.
Boulder and Overland played a wild three quarters of girls basketball Wednesday night, trading leads and elbows all the way, until the Panthers slowed the pace and dissected Overland’s 1-3-1 zone defense.
That led to a 60-53 victory for visiting Boulder in a Class 5A Centennial League contest.
“It’s been rumored that all the teams know how to shut us down with a 1-3-1. We had a lot of problems with zone defenses in the beginning of the season, but we’ve learned how to recognize them and beat them,” Boulder sophomore Mariah Metoyer said.
Metoyer scored a game-high 25 points to go with seven rebounds, Chelsea Williamson hit two 3-pointers to finish with 14 and guard Zoe Pericak scored 10 of her 12 points in the pivotal second half.
For Overland (13-3 overall, 4-3 league), ranked 10th in The Denver Post/9News 5A poll, 6-foot-1 post Chrissy DeMichelis scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, and Stormye Everett reached double figures with 12 points.
The Trailblazers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, as they have been prone to do over the course of their best season in years, but things quickly evened up.
Williamson tied the game at 9 with a 3-pointer, and there would be 11 more ties or lead changes in the first half, which ended with Overland up 27-26.
Late in the third quarter, the Blazers went up by eight, 41-33, when Sharee Goodlow banked in a 3-pointer, but Boulder (10-4, 5-1) needed a little more than a minute to tie the game.
The Panthers’ one-point lead after three quarters stretched to a game high of nine when their offense started to function.
“We had a better game plan, we moved the ball a lot better,” Boulder coach and former player Dynelle Tadlock said.
The victory gave Boulder, which has won seven of its past eight games, a two-game lead in the Centennial.
Boulder 15 11 18 16 – 60
Overland 13 14 16 10 – 53
Boulder – Salance 2 1-2 5, Williamson 4 4-4 14, Metoyer 8 8-13 25, Pericak 5 2-2 12, Rojas 0 0-0 0, Hartman 1 0-0 2, Soell 1 0-0 2, Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 15-21 60.
Overland – Henegan 4 0-0 8, Everett 5 2-4 12, Lindsay 2 0-0 4, Butler 1 0-0 3, DeMichelis 8 4-7 20, Goodlow 1 0-0 3, Hamm 1 0-0 2, Marshal 0 0-0 0, Lekahal 0 1-3 1. Totals 22 7-14 53.
3-pt. goals – Williamson 2, Metoyer; Butler, Goodlow. Total fouls Boulder 11; Overland 16. Fouled out – None. Technicals – Boulder bench; Overland bench.
