Littleton – Even when the Chatfield Chargers stopped raining Friday night, they never stopped pouring it on.
The Chargers hit five 3-pointers in the first half and appeared on the verge of blowing out Standley Lake.
After the break, the Gators regrouped defensively and didn’t give up another long ball.
It wouldn’t matter.
Chatfield outran, outrebounded and outshot the Gators from the free-throw line to wrap up a key 88-75 Class 5A Jefferson County League victory.
Brian Kenshalo drilled four 3-pointers and had 16 points at halftime, but was held to just three points in the second half. Ryan Beigie, who got into foul trouble early, scored half of his team-best 22 points in the fourth quarter, including a 12-for-15 effort from the free-throw line.
“It goes back to being a team, you got to have other people step up,” Chargers coach Steve Schimpeler said. “People are going to be keying on Brian from here on out. But I also think Brian sometimes has to work a little harder to get some shots.”
Trent Bishop added 15 points for the Chargers, Ryan Murphy had 11 and Kenny Leroue came off the bench to finish with 10.
The Chargers (8-4, 3-0 Jeffco) won their third straight and kept pace with league front-runners Green Mountain.
In a matchup of teams with run-and-gun tendencies and multiple outside shooters, the Chargers’ quick ball rotation earned plenty of open looks.
“Our defense really helped and we knew defense coming in was going to be a key to this game,” Bishop said.
Standley Lake (10-5, 2-1) fell behind by 14 in the second quarter but whittled the deficit down to two on Anthony Gibbs’ basket with 4:29 remaining in the third quarter.
A three-point play by Beigie less than two minutes later had the Chargers up 56-47 and they wouldn’t let the Gators back with five for the remainder.
Andrew Zehnder led the Gators with 25 points, Brad Hernandez scored 16 and Gibbs finished with 11.
Standley Lake 17 17 20 21 – 75
Chatfield 23 22 14 29 – 88
Standley Lake – Hernandez 4 5-9 16, Pahl 2 3-6 9, Zehnder 6 11-13 25, Lott 3 4-7 10, Soukup 2 0-0 4, Norloff 0 0-0 0, Gibbs 4 3-4 11, Protsman 0 0-0 0, Hedges 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 26-39 75.
Chatfield – Beigie 5 12-15 22, Bishop 4 7-8 15, Murphy 5 0-1 11, Kenshalo 6 3-4 19, Collins 3 1-2 7, Leroue 4 2-2 10, Detwiler 1 0-0 2, Fritze 0 2-4 2, Haidaris 0 0-0 0, Clements 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 27-36 88.
3-point goals – Hernandez 3, Pahl 2, Zehnder 2; Kenshalo 4, Murphy. Total fouls – Standley Lake 25, Chatfield 27. Fouled out – Gibbs, Lott; Bishop, Collins. Technicals – None.
