AURORA — First, Gateway took its turn thumping Regis.
Then the Raiders took their turn beating up on the Olympians.
Ultimately, Regis was better and the Raiders beat the visiting Olys 63-53 on Friday night in an intracity rivalry.
Regis, ranked No. 2 in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A poll, stayed in a Continental League tie with two others for the lead, but this was not the same Olys’ No. 6 team (11-4, 2-1) that was run off the floor in their first meeting in a December tournament.
No, Gateway all but owned the flat-as-a-pancake Raiders through two quarters and Regis coach Ken Shaw never saw it coming and couldn’t believe what he saw.
“It was if we thought Gateway was going to come in here and lay down for us,” Shaw said. “We had no effort.”
Gateway, behind Josh Pleasant, John Collins and Larry Riley, outhustled, outrebounded and outplayed the suddenly struggling Raiders, who missed their first six shots and did not make a basket until 1:38 remained in the first quarter.
It was 30-18 at halftime.
However, R.J. Demps and Joey Ptasinski sparked a quick run to begin the third quarter and the Raiders were on their way.
The two teams went back-and-forth into the final minutes before turnovers plagued the Olys.
“We didn’t come out hardly at all, our emotions were down,” Demps said of Regis’ slow start. “We’re ranked second in the state and we had that mentality.”
Their actions as the second-ranked team in the state kicked in on a 10-point run to begin the third quarter. The Raiders got better ball movement, cherry-picked for a half-dozen layups and got crisper ball movement that led to better shots.
Gateway, which trailed by six points late, but cut it to one on Curt Brever’s 3-pointer inside the 3-minute mark, failed to execute at crunch time after a brilliant first half.
“We lost our intensity. I thought we ran a little out of gas and we turned the ball over late,” Gateway coach Jeff Sweet said.
Gateway had six turnovers the first half, 14 the second.
Pleasant paced the Olys with 20 points.
Demps’ 17 topped Regis, 10 in the fourth quarter. All of Ptasinski’s 13 points came in the second half. Junior forward Bud Thomas added 12.
Gateway 17 13 10 13 — 53
Regis 9 9 25 20 — 63
Gateway — Pleasant 8 4-7 20, Gibson 0 0-0 0, Collins 4 0-0 9, Brever 2 0-0 6, Berling 2 0-0 4, Roybal 2 1-2 5, Riley 4 1-1 9. Totals 22 6-10 53.
Regis — Ptasinski 6 0-0 13, Winters 3 0-0 6, Demps 5 7-9 17, Cobb 3 1-2 7, Williams 0 0-0 0, Thomas 4 3-5 12, Dyer 1 4-4 7, Clark 0 1-2 1. Totals 22 16-22 63.
3-point goals — Brever 2, Collins; Dyer, Thomas, Ptasinski. Total fouls — Gateway 15, Regis 11. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
