For the first time in his coaching career, Arapahoe’s Dan Snyder was approaching a season completely blind.
After graduating all five starters and starting with a roster that didn’t have a single varsity start under its belt, the Warriors should have been an afterthought, right?
Wrong. Snyder’s team improved to 3-0 on Saturday after an impressive second half defensive effort helped Arapahoe pull away from George Washington 75-49.
“I always say, just because we are not that experienced doesn’t mean we don’t have good players,” said Snyder, whose team is ranked No. 3 in the latest Denver Post coaches poll. “We have a lot of good players, and we are deep.”
The Warriors blew open a 43-35 halftime lead in the third, opening with a 15-3 run that saw the lead go from eight to 20.
Senior Zach Kocur, who finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds in the Warriors’ balanced attack, scored 10 points in that run.
“We talked at the half; we just needed to do a better job of executing the game plan,” Kocur said. “We knew we needed to play as hard as we could to slow down those two guys (TreVante O’Neal and Jevon Taylor).”
Taylor, who led GW with 21 points, hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer going into halftime that seemed to give the Patriots (1-3) momentum, but coach Michael Rogers’ team never responded out of the locker room.
“We just have a mixture of basketball players and kids that play basketball,” said a frustrated Rogers. “Our basketball players are doing what we need them to do. We just need our kids that play basketball to fulfill their roles.”
In addition to Kocur’s 18 points, the Warriors also got 22 from senior Tim Haas and 16 from 6-foot-7 post Shane Jensen.
Arapahoe 22 21 20 12 — 75
George Washington 15 20 8 6 — 49
Arapahoe — Haas 9 2-5 22, Bobzien 2 1-1 6, Jensen 4 8-10 16, Sparks 2 0-0 4, Kocur 4 8-11 18, Troutman 0 0-0 0, Pedersen 1 0-1 2, Albyn 1 0-2 2, Ervine 0 2-2 2, Walsh 0 3-3 3. Totals 23 24-35 75.
George Washington — O’Neal 6 7-12 21, Brown 0 0-0 0, Stewart 0 0-0 0, Taylor 7 2-3 19, Foreman 0 0-0 0, Hudgens 0 0-0 0, Davis 1 0-0 3, Dock 1 0-0 3, Barbosa 0 1-2 1, Feng 1 0-0 2, Brown 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 10-17 49.
3-pt. goals — Haas 2, Kocur 2, Bobzien; O’Neal 2, Davis, Dock. Total fouls — Arapahoe 17; George Washington 23. Fouled out — Haas; Taylor. Technical — Barbosa.
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
