Eaton’s Reds may as well be known as roadies. They improved to 7-0 away from home Saturday night with a 61-58 victory at two-time defending Class 3A champion Denver Christian.
Considering their 3-3 record at home, including a loss Tuesday in which the Reds shot just 30 percent, Eaton may want to get a little cozier at home.
“When we start playing at home again,” Reds coach Dean Grable said, “we’d better take a bus trip, I don’t know.”
Eaton, No. 7 in The Denver Post/9News 3A poll, used superior ball movement and patience to drop the No. 6 Crusaders to 5-6, the first time in memory a Dick Katte-coached team has been below .500 this late in the season.
“We’ve stressed that all year,” said Grable, a former three-sport star at 5A Horizon in the 1990s. “There’s no shot clock and it’s a hard thing to tell these high school kids. There’s an eight-minute shot clock each quarter.”
The Reds, despite having leading scorer Seth Lobato miss his first eight shots, ran to a 31-24 halftime lead, peaked at an 11-point lead in the third quarter, then withstood a series of Crusaders’ catch- up attempts.
Denver Christian twice cut the deficit to a point, but six key free throws by Lance Korell in the final 1:30 sealed it. The Reds kept their hosts chasing by working the ball inside and around the perimeter.
“We work on that in practice,” said Korell, who scored a game-high 21 points, eight in the fourth quarter. “It pays off to play together.”
Cody Ball was strong inside with 11 points, Drew Smith added 10 and Lobato rebounded and defended. Drew Geisick’s nine points added further balance.
The Crusaders received 16 points from John Lenderink and 14 from Jon Adamson, but their perimeter woes continued and Eaton’s crisp passing kept them chasing. And despite scoring from eight players, they attempted only eight free throws.
“It was a good game where they maybe made their runs and we always answered, but we just could never get over the hump,” Katte said. “They’re solid, (the Reds) are good outside and go high-low inside. That’s a nice team.”
Eaton 15 16 15 15 – 61
Denver Christian 14 10 17 17 – 58
Eaton – Korell 6 6-6 21, Geisick 3 0-0 9, Smith 4 1-4 10, Ball 5 1-2 11, Lobato 3 1-1 7, Stewart 1 0-0 2, McNear 0 1-2 1, Maulsby 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 10-15 61.
Denver Christian – VanKooten 3 1-2 8, Adamson 6 2-2 14, Lenderink 7 0-0 16, Kurtz 2 0-0 4, Poland 3 0-0 6, Dacus 1 1-2 3, DeNooy 0 0-0 0, Baker 2 0-0 4, Heffron 1 1-2 3, Hamstra 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 5-8 58.
3-pt. goals – Geisick 3, Korell 3, Smith; Lenderink 2, VanKooten. Total fouls – Eaton 10, Denver Christian 18. Fouled out – None. Technicals – None.
