AURORA — The reigning Colorado player of the year and the Chaparral Wolverines had one thing in common Saturday — they both had nine points at halftime.
That was good news for Bud Thomas and the top-ranked defending champion Regis Jesuit Raiders, who blitzed the No. 7 Wolverines for three quarters for a 59-47 Class 5A Continental League victory, before letting up enough to give coach Ken Shaw a reason to shake his head.
“We look at it as a 32-minute game, and our focus was not as sharp as it should have been,” Shaw said.
The Raiders (16-1, 5-0 league) led 17-2 after one quarter and 30-9 by halftime as the Wolverines rushed, hesitated and missed 22 shots in the first half. In one of their few tests this season, the Raiders knocked down several 3-pointers to loosen the floor, then pounded away inside and out, gobbling up defensive rebounds to keep the cold-shooting visitors on ice.
Regis twice extended its lead to 23 points in the third quarter, then saw the Wolverines (14-3, 3-2) whittle the deficit to 10 points with 11 seconds remaining.
“That’s not the finish we want,” Raiders guard Michael Clark said. “In my opinion, that was the conference championship game, and we didn’t give the effort that we needed to in the second half.”
Thomas scored nine of his team-best 20 points in the first half, while pulling down eight rebounds and blocking two shots. Joey Ptasinski hit three of Regis’ eight 3-pointers and scored 17 points, Clark had eight points, and Drew Dyer, Ryan Winters and Damian Mencini largely controlled the paint.
Regis won its 15th consecutive game and has not lost to an in-state opponent since Dec. 20, 2008.
The Wolverines shot just 3-for-25 from the field in the first half, including 0-for-11 from 3-point range. With the Raiders collapsing inside, the Wolverines didn’t attack the rim, settling for kickouts and long shots.
“We know we can shoot,” Wolverines coach Rob Johnson said. “We just had a hard time inside trusting our inside game. The lesson we learned in the second half is that we have an inside game, and we did that and it opened things up more on the perimeter.”
Chaparral doubled its baskets in the fourth quarter, as 6-foot-7 senior Dalton Patten got going inside and Jordan Adams slashed from outside. Patten scored 13 of his game-best 22 points in the fourth quarter, while Adams finished with 15.
Chaparral 2 7 15 23 — 47
Regis Jesuit 17 13 14 15 — 59
Chaparral — Morse 1 0-0 2, Jor. Adams 7 0-0 15, Calvert 2 1-5 5, Keyser 1 0-0 3, Patten 7 7-9 22, Jos. Adams 0 0-0 0, Serena 0 0-0 0, McBride 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 8-11 47.
Regis Jesuit — Clark 3 0-0 8, Ptasinski 4 6-7 17, Dyer 2 1-2 6, Thomas 9 0-0 20, Winters 1 1-2 3, Samson 1 0-0 2, Mencini 1 1-2 3. Totals 21 9-13 59.
3-point goals — Jor. Adams, Keyser, Patten; Ptasinski 3, Thomas 2, Clark 2, Dyer.
Total fouls — Chaparral 17, Regis 15; Fouled out — Samson. Technicals — None.
