AURORA — He’s the fourth of four brothers. The first three were major players and contributors at Denver East.
So when David Thornton and his Cherokee Trail Cougars hosted the city’s East on Tuesday night, don’t think for a second that Thornton didn’t hear about it regularly. In fact, it has been going on for a while … and it’s predictable.
“I hear a lot of people saying you should have come home, you should have come to East,” Thornton said. “But CT’s home. (My brothers) made their home at East; I’m making mine here … but it is exciting when I play East.”
He added to the excitement on Tuesday — the junior scored 19 points, 11 in the fourth quarter, as Cherokee Trail whipped the Angels, the defending Class 5A state champions, 67-54 in nonleague at a fairly crowded Cougars’ Den.
It evened Cherokee Trails’ record at 2-2 and it wants more.
“We were desperate,” Thornton said. “We were focused. We just needed a win. We were willing. And I think we wanted it more than they did.”:
The Angels, now 1-1, lost for the first time to an in-state foe since the 5A championship game in Boulder in 2013. Their in-state winning streak had been 21 games and their four losses a season ago all came to out-of-state teams, including to Saints Neumann-Goretti from Philadelphia and Omaha Central, once the schoolboy home of former NFL great Gale Sayers.
Denver East never led — and all it had going was senior guard Brian Carey, a 5A all-state second-team selection a year ago by The Denver Post, who went off for 37 points, but needed 30 shots to do it. He’s also playing with an ankle problem.
But coach Morgan Gregory’s Cherokee Trail, which overcame its own troubles with turnovers, beat the Angels down the floor and down low, used its quickness to get to the rim and weathered each moved by Denver East.
Ronnie Barfield added 14 points for the Cougars. Drequez Harvey contributed 10, including eight straight in the second quarter.
Overall, the Cougars were able to match the Angels’ athleticism and never blinked whenever Denver East tried to make a move.
However, Denver East, with only Carey back as a starter, is inexperienced, still trying to find itself and nowhere near a rotation. Plus, the Angels had lots of chances, particularly inside, and didn’t finish at the rim.
“(The Cougars) exposed and embarrassed us,” Angels coach Rudy Carey said. “It could have been worse.”
Cherokee Trail held Denver East to seven points in the opening quarter, banged inside with the Angels and got to a lot of loose balls. Only poor free-throw shooting (12-of-23) and second-half turnover problems by Cherokee Trail kept the Angels within sight, although Thornton’s inside play was the decisive spark in the fourth quarter.
Denver East will face Cherry Creek at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday, at 4:30 p.m., before the Nuggets entertain the Miami Heat. Cherokee Trail will be at Highlands Ranch on Friday. Both are nonleague matchups.
Denver East7 15 14 18 — 54
Cherokee trail13 14 17 23 — 67
Denver East — Willis 1 0-0 2, Harrell 2 0-0 4, Myers 0 0-0 0, Potts 0 0-0 0, Carey 11 10-12 37, Peterson 1 1-1 3, Ogsbury 0 0-0 0, Wiese 0 0-0 0, Ablakam 2 2-4 6, Moore 0 0-0 0, Brines 0 0-0 0, Mackey 0 2-2 2. Totals 17 15-19 54..
Cherokee trail — J. Lottie 2 5-11 9, Thornton 7 5-7 19, Barfield 7 0-1 14, I. Lottie 3 0-0 6, Sapp 1 2-4 4, Gilbert 0 0-0 0, Rodgers 0 0-0 0, Johnson 1 0-0 3, Harvey 4 0-1 10, Scott 1 0-0 2, Kelly 0 0-0 0, Shannon 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 12-23 67.
3-pt. goals — Carey 5; Harvey 2, Johnson,1 2-4 4,
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or
