LITTLETON — Isiah Cooper is a 5-foot-7 freshman with a big smile, few words and enough moxie for all of Montbello.
Sent to the free-throw line three times in the final 30 seconds of the Warriors’ first-round playoff matchup against Chatfield Wednesday night, Cooper was in a world far from the screaming and stomping surrounding him.
“I just knocked down the free throws like practice,” said Cooper, who sank 4-of-6 attempts in the fourth quarter to help the ninth-seeded Warriors hold on for an enthralling 67-66 Class 5A victory over the No. 8 Chargers.
Cooper, who finished with nine points off the bench, broke a 63-63 tie to give Montbello (11-12) the lead for good with 30 seconds left. Cooper was 0-for-3 from the foul line entering a fourth quarter in which the Warriors erased an eight-point deficit to win for the first time in four games.
Montbello advances in the Ray Ball Region and will play top seed and host Eaglecrest (19-4) on Friday at 7 p.m. Chatfield finishes its season 9-15.
Montbello senior Nate Nelson scored a game-high 18 points and guard Lee Hall scored seven of his 16 in the fourth quarter of a game that had 13 lead changes and 10 tie scores.
“The thing I’m most impressed with is we didn’t give up,” Warriors coach David Carey said. “That’s what has been happening and it’s been haunting us all year. We would get down and kids would drop their heads.”
After building a precious six-point lead in the second quarter, the Warriors faded in the third and were down 59-51 on Tyler Haidaris’ layup with 3:45 left in the fourth. The Warriors went back to their press the Chargers had broken numerous times in the past and came up with enough turnovers to tie the game at 59-59 with 2:20 remaining.
Robert Harrison’s layup capped the 10-0 run for the visitors and had Chatfield scrambling. The Chargers’ final possessions were two off-balanced shot attempts by guard Trent Bishop, a turnover, and 3-pointer at the buzzer by Landon Vermeer.
“We got caught in the moment,” Chargers coach Steve Schimpeler said. “You can’t do that. You got to continue to play as you would play normally until it’s 0:00. We didn’t do that.”
Bishop led the Chargers with 17 points, Haidaris had 15 and sophomore Jordan Carter added 14 points and six rebounds.
Montbello 17 20 9 21 – 67
Chatfield 14 17 16 19 – 66
Montbello – Hall 6 2-2 16, Coleman 2 0-0 5, Crowder 2 1-2 6, Shabazz 3 0-0 7, Nelson 5 6-11 18, Harrison 2 0-0 4, Wilson 1 0-0 2, Cooper 2 4-9 9. Totals 23 13-24 67.
Chatfield – Bishop 4 8-9 17, Clements 0 0-0 0, Fritze 3 0-0 6, Haidaris 6 1-2 15, Slavin 1 1-4 3, Carter 6 2-2 14, Vermeer 4 0-0 9, Ta. Rogers 1 0-0 2, Wages 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 12-17 66.
3-point goals – Hall 2, Nelson 2, Coleman, Crowder, Shabazz, Cooper; Haidaris 2, Bishop, Vermeer. Total fouls – Montbello 18, Chatfield 20. Fouled out – Carter. Technicals – None.
