Is the first time the sweetest?
Ask East’s Angels, who finally broke through a brick wall of a barrier Saturday night.
The three-time city girls basketball champions handled suburban power Arapahoe 58-44 in Class 5A’s second round and progressed to the big-school bracket’s Sweet 16 for the first time.
“I’m very relieved,” East coach Dwight Berry said. “These girls deserved it.”
Since the larger bracket was instituted earlier in the decade, the Angels seemed to have no problem with the first round, but the second had been too much to handle.
No more. They will take a 20-3 record into Thursday’s third round and feel good about downing one of the metropolitan area’s better programs.
Even Shae Kelley, who led all scorers with 21 points and came to the Angels after transferring from George Washington, appreciated the moment.
“It just feels good to get out of the second round,” Kelley said. “We played really hard.”
The Angels started slowly, but picked it up in the second and third quarters. They were superior under the basket, handled Arapahoe’s stepped-up pressure and made enough free throws to keep the Warriors chasing.
Kelley, along with Carlie Christianson (14 points) and Dawn Wattley, controlled the paint and frequently limited Arapahoe to one shot. East used its athleticism to protect the ball, create turnovers and beat the Warriors down the floor.
On the other side, Arapahoe was more than banged up. Top player Amy Barczuk, a junior, has been sporting a cast because of a stress fracture in her right foot, and three other significant Warriors (15-9) were trying to play through injuries. So coach Ron Burgin elected to turn it into a chess match, keep it close, then try to win it late.
It didn’t work.
“We did the best we could with it,” said Burgin, whose Warriors were paced by Caitlin Durkin’s 18 points. “The truth is, had we hit some shots, had we hit some free throws . . . but we didn’t. (Berry) is a good coach and has done a good job.”
Said Berry: “This is a special team, it really is.”
Arapahoe 10 6 9 19 — 44
East 9 13 18 18 — 58
Arapahoe — Wojahn 3 3-6 10, Hentschel 1 0-0 2, Day 3 1-4 8, Durkin 5 6-10 18, Hoopingarner 0 0-0 0, Foss 0 0-0 0, Bowman 1 0-0 3, Saurber 0 3-6 3, Saathoff 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 13-26 44.
East — Ausler 1 0-0 2, Wattley 3 3-3 9, Christianson 4 6-7 14, Samuels 0 0-0 0, Kelley 7 7-12 21, Nalley 0 0-0 0, Sanders 3 1-3 8, Taylor 0 2-5 2, Z. Jackson 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 19-30 58.
3-pt. goals — Durkin 2, Bowman, Day, Wojahn; Sanders.
