Forget Colorado’s recent Arctic blast. It’s in the past.
A sold-out crowd packed the sweltering Thunderdome on Saturday afternoon for a hot Denver Prep League gathering that has figured heavily in the city championship for decades.
Ultimately, East downed George Washington 64-53 to remain at the top of the DPL – tied with Abraham Lincoln – with only two weeks remaining in the regular season.
The Angels, ranked No. 1 in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A poll, are 16-2 overall and 4-0 in the league. George Washington is 12-6 and 2-2.
Play was unusually ragged, the shooting was dreadfully cold and the decision-making was more suited to games in early December.
Plus, East was without junior forward Mookie Gilbert, who was suspended from school for three days.
“We missed Mookie,” East coach Rudy Carey said. “We only had two offensive rebounds in the first half. And we were horrible from the free-throw line.
“(The Patriots) are a tough, physical team, they’re very talented and we knew it would be a helter-skelter type of game.”
It was. East shot 21-of-52 from the floor, including missing a variety of layups and putbacks; GW was 23-of-51. Combined, the two were 24-of-46 from the free-throw line.
East led much of the game, only to see GW respond regularly. Of course, East’s bad decisions helped the Pats and whenever GW got close, it would have a turnover or take a bad shot, something that didn’t sit well with coach Mike Rogers.
“We were there the whole game, (the Angels) didn’t do anything we hadn’t practiced against,” he said. “You’ve got to come to play. It has been like that all year. We play 75 percent of the games, then you get to the tough ones and something goes haywire on you … and we wanted them to play defense more than two passes.”
Blake Swain paced the Angels with 14 points, Donell Wells had 12 and DaVaughn Thornton added 10. George Washington’s Sean Stokes led all scorers with 21, including 19 in the second half.
East 17 16 12 19 – 64
George Washington 8 14 14 17 – 53
East – Martinez-Doublin 4 2-4 10, Swain 4 3-4 14, Da. Thornton 4 2-4 10, Verner 2 4-9 8, Wells 3 5-7 12, De. Thornton 4 0-0 8, Hildreth 0 1-2 1, Brooks 0 1-2 1. Totals 21 18-32 64.
George Washington – Brown 2 0-0 4, Johnson 4 3-6 11, D. Millard 2 0-1 4, Drumgo 2 0-0 4, Stokes 9 2-3 21, Davis 1 0-0 2, Bropleh 0 0-0 0, Ennis 3 1-4 7. Totals 23 6-14 53.
3-point goals – Swain 3, Wells; Stokes. Total fouls – East 14, George Washington 25. Fouled out -Johnson, Drumgo. Technicals – Drumgo.
