CENTENNIAL — Parker Semin and the rest of the Arapahoe boys basketball team had been counting the minutes until they could get another shot at Overland.
That moment finally arrived Wednesday, and the Warriors took full advantage of the opportunity.
Mixing a balanced offense with a rugged defensive effort, Arapahoe avenged its only loss of the season by posting a 54-42 victory.
The Warriors, ranked second in Class 5A, claimed at least a share of the Centennial League crown and can win the conference outright with a victory at home Friday against Eaglecrest. No. 5 Overland fell to 17-5, 11-2.
“Probably the second after we lost that game, I was looking forward to playing them again,” said Semin, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds. “We knew we left a lot out there, and we knew we could come back and beat them. We all knew we had it within us.”
Arapahoe (21-1, 12-1) never trailed after putting together a 12-0 first-half run that featured 3-pointers by four players. The Warriors led 30-23 at halftime and extended their lead to 14 points midway through the fourth quarter.
Arapahoe did a commendable job of slowing down Overland standout Darius Pardner. The senior guard finished with a game-high 24 points but scored only six after halftime. The Warriors harassed Overland into a 4-for-22 effort from 3-point range.
Nine players scored points for Arapahoe, which was led by 16 points from senior Tyler Balli.
“We thought our defensive effort was terrific, as was our commitment to rebounding,” Arapahoe coach Dan Snyder said. “They beat us rebounding the first time we played them — the worst that we’ve had all year. We typically win rebounding in almost all our games. We really made that commitment tonight, and I thought our kids did a wonderful job on the boards and limiting Overland’s second shots.”
Overland 6 17 9 10 — 42
Arapahoe 11 19 12 12 — 54
Overland — Williams 1 0-0 2, Pardner 9 3-6 24, Redd 1 3-3 5, Soto 0 0-0 0, Benning 2 2-4 7, Curry 0 0-0 0, Turner 0 0-0 0, Johnson 1 0-0 2, Bixenmann 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 8-13 42.
Arapahoe — Fromm 2 0-0 5, Semin 3 8-9 14, Moore 2 0-0 5, Webb 0 2-4 2, Balli 4 6-7 16, Jensen 1 1-1 3, Jessup 0 0-0, Ratterman 2 0-0 6, Kocur 1 0-0 2, Johannsen 0 1-2 1. Totals 15 18-23 54.
3-pt. goals — Pardner 3, Benning; Ratterman 2, Balli 2, Moore, Fromm.
