GREELEY — You get the feeling Faith Christian graduate Jobi Wall would be good at just about whatever he does.
Just a little more than a month ago, the 6-foot-6 redhead not only pitched a perfect game for the Eagles in a district playoff game, he also hit for the cycle in the same game.
Oh, yeah, he also led Faith to the Class 3A state basketball tournament in March and will play collegiately at Colorado Christian. On Saturday, in the final prep game of his career, Wall scored a game-high 27 points in helping the White team to an 88-81 victory over the Red team in the boys basketball all-state game.
“If you don’t want to win, then I can’t figure out why people would want to play sports,” Wall said.
The White team, coached by Widefield’s Mark Munoz and Fountain Valey’s Mike Maiurro, built its biggest lead of the game, 14 points, late in the third when Wall went on a 7-0 run.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that there are not a lot of teams on the planet that wouldn’t want him,” Maiurro said.
Munoz said, “What makes him special is just the character he has. On the court he takes responsibility for the mistakes, whether it’s him or not, and that’s contagious.”
But for every run the White team scored, the Red team seemed to have an answer.
The Red team, coached by Campo/Vilas’ Kalen Grahn and Sterling’s Mike Holloway, fought back to take the lead twice in the fourth quarter but didn’t have enough in the tank down the stretch to match the athleticism of the White team.
“I haven’t touched a ball since the last game of our high school season back in February. … Not just for me, but this second game was hard on us all,” Burlington’s Loren Queen said, who led the Red team with 23 points. “They were just more athletic than we were and they were just faster.”
Widefield’s Dion Vaughn scored 20 for the White team, which also got 11 from Cherokee Trail’s Cyrus Durham and 10 from Fountain-Ft. Carson’s Terrance Hutchins.
Rye’s Andrew Harrison added 14 points for the Red team and both Lance Korell of Eaton and Richard Brown of Arvada West had 10.
Red 11 23 21 26 — 81
White 17 19 25 27 — 88
Red — Thompson (Campo/Vilas) 0 0-1 0, Korell (Eaton) 3 2-2 10, Campbell (Grandview) 3 2-4 9, Freed (Campo/Vilas) 2 1-2 5, Brown (Arvada West) 4 2-2 10, Harrison (Rye) 6 1-2 14, Corkle (North Park) 1 0-0 2, DeGrado (Rocky Ford) 4 0-0 8, Queen (Burlington) 9 4-4 23. Totals 32 12-17 81.
White — Hutchins (Ftn.-Ft. Carson) 4 0-0 10, Weaver (Calhan) 1 1-2 3, Ackelson (Fossil Ridge) 2 2-2 6, Rueb (Hi-Plains) 1 0-0 2, Vaughn (Widefield) 9 1-2 20, Larsen (Sanford) 1 0-0 2, Link (Cherry Creek) 0 0-0 0, Durham (Cherokee Trail) 4 2-2 11, Wall (Faith Christian) 10 2-3 27, Francis (Vail Christian) 2 3-4 7. Totals 34 11-15 88.
3-pt. goals — Korell 2, Campbell, Harrison, Queen; Wall 5, Hutchins 2, Vaughn, Durham. Fouled out — None.
