HIGHLANDS RANCH — After losing much of the scoring punch from last year’s state playoff team, ThunderRidge boys basketball coach Joe Ortiz had been understandably concerned about how this season’s Grizzlies were going to score points.
Yet if ThunderRidge prevents its opponents from recording field goals for as long as it frustrated George Washington on Wednesday night, the Grizzlies won’t have to be overly concerned about scoring.
ThunderRidge held the Patriots, the 10th-ranked team in Class 5A, without a field goal for 18 1/2 minutes during the middle of the game and then held off an early fourth-quarter charge by GW to post a 49-39 victory in the season opener for both teams.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces, but we are a lot bigger too,” ThunderRidge senior Ryan Pagnotta said. “Our goal was to play man to shut them down, and they just couldn’t get any open looks against us.
“Coach got into our heads about defense, and that was all that we had to do against George Washington.”
The Patriots used two field goals in the opening moments to race to a 5-0 lead but were unable to make another field goal until more than five minutes had passed in the third quarter.
GW converted enough free throws to remain within striking distance and opened the fourth quarter with six of the first seven points to get within 39-30 with 6:37 remaining, but the Patriots got no closer.
Pagnotta led a balanced ThunderRidge attack with 11 points, and junior Ryan Arnold added 10 points. Senior guard Odessa Lear led GW with 11 points.
“We had fast-break opportunities and we’d turn the ball over, and when we didn’t turn the ball over, we’d miss the layup,” GW coach Mi- chael Rogers said.
“You can’t have that many turnovers and expect to win a game, especially at somebody else’s house.”
George Washington 8 6 10 15 — 39
ThunderRidge 12 13 13 11 — 49
GW — Lear 3 4-10 11, Jones 0 1-2 1, Johnson 4 2-3 10, Williams 2 5-6 9, Marshall 1 4-6 6, Feng 0 2-2 2, Brown 0 0-0 0, Hudgens 0 0-0 0, DeHaro-Lopez 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 18-29 39.
TR — Arnold 5 0-2 10, Pagnotta 5 1-1 11, Grover 2 1-4 5, Rodriguez 1 3-4 5, Rusk 1 2-2 4, Lisle 3 3-6 9, Marucci 1 2-2 5, Baumgarten 0 0-0 0, O’Neill 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 12-21 49.
3-point goals — GW, Lear; TR, Marucci. Fouls — GW 17, TR 19.
