AURORA — No De’Ron Davis? No problem.
With its star junior on the bench with foul trouble for most of the second half, Overland relied on its stifling defense to beat Mullen 64-50 on Wednesday to open Centennial League play.
“Any time he gets in foul trouble, it changes our approach,” Overland coach Danny Fisher said. “We don’t practice with De’Ron in foul trouble, we don’t prepare games with him in foul trouble. Any time that happens, it changes our defense, it changes our ability to be aggressive on the ball.”
With the 6-foot-9 Davis collecting his fourth foul in the third quarter, Overland, No. 6 in the 5A Associated Press Colorado media poll, leaned on its quick guards.
Mullen came within a point of the Trailblazers early in the third quarter after Vince DeBartolomeis hit a 3-pointer to make it 32-31, but that’s as close as the Mustangs would get. Overland used a full-court trap in the fourth to force Mullen to turn the ball over.
Wyoming-bound senior guard Austin Conway led the way for Overland with 23 points and seven assists, while Davis had 10 points, eight rebounds and four fouls.
Overland looked like it would run away with the game in the first quarter, charging out to a 23-8 lead. But junior Nathan Davis led the Mustangs’ push back, scoring 30 points and pulling down 15 rebounds in a losing effort for Mullen.
“I think we outplayed them in the second and third quarter, but when you dig a hole against a team like that, that’s trouble,” Mullen coach Pete Spiessbach said.
Looking ahead to Overland’s game against Eaglecrest on Friday, Conway didn’t hesitate on what he thought his team needed to work on.
“Free throws,” he said, as the Trailblazers shot just 58 percent from the charity stripe.
Joe Nguyen: jnguyen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joenguyen
Mullen (6-3): 8 16 11 15 50
Overland (6-4): 23 7 13 21 64
Mullen — Boeyink 0 2-2 2; Boyd 1 1-2 3; Davis 10 10-14 30; DeBartolomeis 2 1-4 4; Erdle, M. 0 0-0 0; Horvath 1 0-0 2; Busnardo 0 0-0 0; Erdle, J. 2 2-4 7; Thompson 0 0-0 0. Totals — 16 16-26 50.
Overland — Gibson 2 5-12 9; Conway 8 7-11 23; Wang 4 1-2 10; Davis 4 2-2 10; Swan 1 2-2 4; Grant-Perry 0 0-0 0; Yousuf 2 2-2 6; Halliburton, A. 1 0-2 2; Clark 0 0-0 0; Jackson 0 0-0 0. Totals — 22 19-33 64.
3-pt. goals — Debartolomeis, Erdle, J.; Wang. Fouled Out — Boeyink, Boyd, Davis, Erdle, J.; Grant-Perry. Tech. Fouls — Erdle, M.; Davis.
