Aurora – Trey Eckloff showed off the kind of skills Wednesday night that Cherry Creek coach Mike Brookhart has known about all season.
The 6-foot-10 junior scored 16 points, including two 3-pointers, grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked one shot and was 4-for-5 from the free-throw line as the Bruins, ranked No. 8 in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A poll, rattled No. 4 Smoky Hill and then watched the Buffaloes fall apart.
Along with 6-7 senior Taylor Montgomery, Eckloff dominated down low throughout the Bruins’ 55-44 victory, which solidified second place in the Class 5A Centennial League and forced the Buffaloes to wait until Friday to try to clinch the league title.
Smoky Hill, which is still bidding for one of the tournament’s top four postseason seeds, missed nine free throws in the fourth quarter and made just 9-of-24 attempts for the game. Leading scorer Josh Cassaday was in foul trouble early and finished with just four points on 1-of-8 shooting.
“Our strengths are down low, we know that,” Eckloff said. “If we want to win games, we have to have a strong presence down low. Cassaday got in foul trouble early, so Taylor and I had to utilize that and keep going to each other.”
Montgomery scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds as the Bruins (15-6, 10-3 in league) snapped the Buffaloes’ 12-game winning streak and avenged a 56-50 loss from Jan. 19.
“I thought our defense was very good tonight,” Brookhart said. “I thought our rebounding was good. We were able to play at our tempo and we converted down the stretch.”
Cherry Creek outrebounded the Buffaloes 36-17. The Bruins also got timely 3-pointers from Carter Ahlbrandt and Karl Heimbrock and four points from Scott Traina in the final minutes to stretch a three-point lead to 11.
Smoky Hill (19-3, 11-2) got 13 points from Scott May and 11 from Sam Huebner, but shot 39 percent from the field and never led by more than two points. The Buffaloes, however, can clinch the Centennial with a win Friday over Boulder.
Cherry Creek 18 8 13 16 – 55
Smoky Hill 13 11 8 12 – 44
Cherry Creek – Ahlbrandt 2 0-0 6, Heimbrock 1 2-2 5, Link 0 2-2 2, Montgomery 8 3-7 20, Eckloff 5 4-5 16, Keeth 1 0-0 2, Traina 1 2-2 4, Giles 0 0-0 0, Elway 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 13-18 55.
Smoky Hill – Whittington 2 0-3 4, May 4 4-7 13, Ross 2 0-0 4, Cassaday 1 2-8 4, Huebner 4 2-4 11, Perry 2 0-0 5, Agyei 0 0-0 0, Carter 1 0-0 2, Stroth 0 1-2 1. Totals 16 9-24 44.
3-point goals – Ahlbrandt 2, Eckloff 2, Heimbrock, Montgomery; Huebner, May, Perry. Total fouls – Cherry Creek 21, Smoky Hill 16. Fouled out – Heimbrock. Technical – Link.
