AURORA — Without their Diamond, the Cherokee Trail Cougars were in the rough Wednesday night.
Missing starter Diamond Gillis because of an injured thumb, the Cougars started cold, warmed up, sputtered and held on for a 56-52 Class 5A nonleague victory over Dakota Ridge in the Hinkley Holiday Hoops Classic.
“I think we got too used to our set positions, and today we switched it around a little bit and everybody didn’t know what they were doing,” Cougars junior Austin Evans said.
The Cougars (5-0) were down by eight when they hit their first basket with 3:41 left in the first quarter. That sparked a 9-0 run to finish the quarter and a 21-5 run to finish the first half before the Eagles (2-3) rallied twice in the second half to make it interesting.
Evans was the only constant for the Cougars as the junior guard scored 14 points in the first half, sank three 3-pointers and finished with a team-best 21 points. Micah Green added nine points and seven rebounds, and Phil Ramey chipped in with eight points.
“I wasn’t happy with the way we rebounded,” Cougars first-year coach Shawn Dirden said. “We want to play physical and we want to get after it, but we just didn’t quite have the right mind-set.”
The Cougars couldn’t outrebound Dakota Ridge’s Cameron Pritchett (13 rebounds) in the first half and lost track of Derek VanderVelde in the fourth quarter, as the sophomore scored 15 of his game-high 26 points in the final frame.
VanderVelde was 7-of-8 from the floor in the fourth quarter, burying midrange jumpers from around the floor.
“The team just passed the ball around and I was open,” VanderVelde said.
Danny DiFolco and Cory Loupee both added seven points for the Eagles.
The Eagles, under the direction of former Chatfield standout Curi Yutzy, were reacting to the Cougars’ pressure for the first three quarters, but slowly began to generate better looks and turnovers with their press in the final four minutes.
The Eagles turned the ball over 19 times compared to 21 by the Cougars.
Dakota Ridge 8 5 12 27 — 52
Cherokee Trail 9 12 14 21 — 56
Dakota Ridge — D. VanderVelde 12 1-3 26, Canny 2 0-0 5, DiFolco 1 5-6 7, Pritchett 1 1-2 3, Loupee 3 1-1 7, Robbins 0 0-0 0, B. VanderVelde 0 0-0 0, Sherman 1 0-1 2, Musleh 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 8-13 52.
Cherokee Trail — Adams 2 2-2 6, Ramey 3 2-2 8, Evans 8 2-2 21, Gregory-McGhee 1 0-0 2, Green 4 1-4 9, Martin 2 0-0 4, Holt 0 1-2 1, Curringtor 0 1-2 1, Turner 0 0-0 0, Hatcher 0 0-0 0, McCord 0 2-5 2, Dennis 1 0-1 2. Totals 21 11-20 56.
3-point goals — D. VanderVelde, Canny; Evans 3. Total fouls — Dakota Ridge 19, Cherokee Trail 16. Fouled out — Pritchett. Technicals — None.
