LITTLETON — Landon Vermeer was popping 3-pointers like they were Christmas candy. Shoot, the entire Chatfield team was. But it was the Chargers’ stifling man-to-man defense in the game’s first 10 minutes that decided Friday’s 66-44 win over visiting Arapahoe.
Chatfield scored 19 of the game’s first 22 points, led by as many as 27 points and never trailed in handing the Warriors their first loss of the season. A lot of Arapahoe’s success in its first three games had come from second-chance opportunities, something that wasn’t there against the Chargers.
“We had very few. It’s the first time all year we’ve been outrebounded, and we were outrebounded by a lot,” Arapahoe head coach Dan Snyder said. “So we didn’t get second-chance opportunities. They were terrific. They had more energy than we did.”
Vermeer finished with a game-high 23 points, including six 3-pointers. In all, Chatfield (4-1) exploited Arapahoe (3-1) with 11 3-pointers on 17 attempts to bounce back from Wednesday’s loss to Palmer.
“I never come out thinking, ‘I’m going to take the three tonight.’ Whomever is hot, we’re going to get it to them,” Vermeer said. “We come out, move the ball around, get some shots and, hopefully, knock them down.”
They did quite a bit of that Friday night.
Vermeer opened the scoring with a 3, one of six he hit in the first half.
While Chatfield was draining 3-pointers, Arapahoe was struggling to get a basket. The Warriors were held to just one basket, a Parker Semin layup, in the game’s early minutes — in fact, it was the only shot the Warriors hit in the first 9 minutes, 35 seconds. By then, Chatfield led 19-3 and the game was all but decided. Semin led Arapahoe with 15 points.
“We knew Arapahoe is a very, very good team. We knew every single one of them could shoot, so we knew we’d have to come out with one of our best defensive games,” Vermeer said. “That’s what we did. We came out with that intensity to come out and get a win.”
Arapahoe 3 14 10 17 — 44
Chatfield 17 15 19 15 — 66
Arapahoe — Fromm 2 3-4 9, Kocur 1 0-0 2, Webb 0 3-6 3, Moore 1 0-0 3, Ratterman 1 2-2 5, Billingsley 2 2-2 7, Semin 7 0-1 15. Totals 14 10-15 44.
Chatfield — Vaninger 1 0-0 3, Wright 4 2-2 12, Evans 2 0-0 6, Slavin 0 2-2 2, Vermeer 8 1-1 23, Wages 4 3-4 11, Carter 3 3-4 9. Totals 22 11-13 66.
3-pointers — Fromm 2, Moore, Ratterman, Billingsley, Semin, Vaninger, Wright 2, Evans 2, Vermeer 6. Total fouls — Arapahoe 15, Chatfield 16. Fouled out — Eigner.
