BOULDER — Joey Ptasinski never got tired of raising his arms Thursday night.
As the Regis Jesuit Raiders were firing away from 3-point range, the senior guard raised his arms in a “V” in expectation just about every time. More often than not, he was right.
The defending Class 5A state champions found the rims at the Coors Events Center warm and friendly, as they hammered Doherty to notch their 44th consecutive victory over an in-state opponent.
“I was pumped,” Ptasinski said. “I don’t know what our percentage was, besides me, but it seemed like they all went in.”
The Raiders (26-1) shot 6-for-17 from 3-point range without Ptasinski, who was an uncharacteristic 1-for-8 from downtown, but he still finished with 11 points as the Raiders had four players score in double figures.
Regis will return here Saturday for a chance to win successive titles, following East’s back-to-back titles in 2007-08.
Against the 1-3-1 zone of Doherty (18-10), the Raiders put four shooters on the perimeter, swung passes, shot, cut on the backside and crashed the boards for an easy putback if necessary.
And they did it all night.
“This time of year, you just want to win and move on,” said Raiders coach Ken Shaw, who notched his 584th career victory.
Bud Thomas led the Raiders with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Drew Dyer had 16 and six, and Ryan Winters had 10 and six.
“Warming up, we get the bad shots out of the way, and then we’re ready to go,” Dyer said.
The Spartans, who erased an 18-point deficit in the state quarterfinals to knock off top-seeded rival Rampart in overtime last week, made the first basket. The Raiders seemingly made the rest.
Damian Mencini’s basket had the Raiders up 18-4 in the first quarter, and Regis extended its lead to 35-16 late in the second quarter on an uncontested layup by Thomas with 30 seconds left.
Ptasinski’s baseline jumper at the buzzer pushed Regis’ lead to 62-30 at the end of the third quarter. Even with the bench emptied, the Raiders kept pulling away, extending their lead to 40 points on Chris Lesnansky’s left- handed layup with less than two minutes remaining.
“They’re better than us,” Spartans coach Dan McKiernan said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of saying you got beat by a better team.”
Tyler Velasquez did his best to revive the Spartans. The guard scored all seven of Doherty’s points in the first quarter and hit another long 3-pointer to answer Thomas’ layup just before halftime, finishing with a game-best 20 points.
Doherty 7 12 11 12 — 42
Regis Jesuit 18 17 27 18 — 80
Doherty — Velasquez 8 2-4 20, Jones 1 1-1 3, Sisneros 1 0-0 2, Oesterle 1 0-1 2, Donohoe 0 0-0 0, Yates 0 0-0 0, Hill 3 1-2 7, Sampson 1 0-0 2, Krause 1 0-1 2, Young 1 0-1 2, Lancaster 1 0-0 2, Gertin 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 4-10 42.
Regis Jesuit — Ptasinski 5 0-0 11, Winters 4 2-3 10, Thomas 7 2-4 18, Clark 1 1-2 3, Dyer 5 3-4 16, Mencini 3 1-2 7, Benanati 0 0-0 0, Smith 1 2-2 4, MacDonald 0 2-2 2, Stemper 0 0-0 0, Lesnansky 1 0-2 2, Samson 3 0-1 7. Totals 30 13-22 80.
3-pt. goals: Velasquez 2; Dyer 3, Thomas 2, Ptasinski, Samson. Fouled out — Young.
