Rudy Carey has always been the sort of coach who implores his players use their heads, even when the opposition clearly is overmatched.
Once Carey’s Denver East Angles started to think on the floor, it became a long, frustrating night for John F. Kennedy.
The Angels overcame a sluggish start to bury the Commanders in the second quarter, paving the way for a 77-41 victory in the Denver Prep League opener for both teams. It was the fourth consecutive win for East (10-4), while Kennedy (11-3) suffered its second loss in three games after compiling a 10-1 start.
“We started thinking, and we weren’t thinking earlier,” Carey said. “We were playing bad basketball, and (Kennedy) is a good team. We just had to get back to work, get back to basics. All 16 people were working on the court. Working and communicating.”
The game was tied 12-12 at the end of the first quarter and remained tied at 18-18 early in the second before the Angels took over. East finished the half with an 18-0 run, taking a 36-18 lead at the break, and added the first seven points of the second half to erase any chance of a Commanders comeback.
During that stretch, Kennedy was held scoreless for nearly seven minutes. East’s leading scorer, freshman guard Dominique Collier, was limited to nine points, but he received plenty of help from his teammates as 13 Angels players scored points. Senior forward Devon Gee made his first six shots and led the Angles with
“(Collier) was pressing a little bit because he was competing with their freshman (Jevon Griffin),” Carey said. “We’ve both got some young guns, and they are going to be fine.”
East made eight three-pointers and dominated the paint on both ends of the floor. The Angels held Amal Wilson, Kennedy’s leading scorer who entered the game averaging 15 points a game, to only nine points. Timothy Vega led the Commanders with 11 points.
“We just picked up our defense and started hitting our shots,” Gee said. “We got a lot of effort out of our bench. If we can get that, it will be like this all the time. We played (Kennedy) in the summer and they thought they got us in the summer, so we just wanted to show them what we are really about.”
Denver East12 24 18 23 — 77
JFK12 6 10 13 — 41
DE — Carter 4 3-5 13, Gee 6 6-7 18, Collier 4 0-0 9, Hakeem 5 0-0 12, Robinson 1 0-0 2, Kalac 1 0-0 2, Whitaker 1 0-0 2, Cardoza 2 0-0 5, Thompson 0 0-0 0, Minard 0 0-0 0, Bledsoe 1 0-0 2, Kahn 1 0-0 2, Starks 1 0-0 3, Davis 1 0-0 3, Napheys 0 4-5 4. Totals 28 13-17 77.
JFK — Zarate 1 1-2 3, Vega 4 3-3 11, Craig 1 2-4 5, Griffin 2 0-2 4, Wilson 2 5-6 9, Hammons 1 0-0 3, Miltenberger 0 0-0 0, Emerson 1 0-2 2, Salgado 1 0-0 2, Zapata 1 0-1 2. Totals 14 11-20 41.
3-pt. goals — Carter 2, Hakeem 2, Davis, Collier, Cardoza, Starks; Hammons, Craig. Fouls — DE 20, JFK 10.
