HIGHLANDS RANCH — Thirty-six years as a head coach in Colorado has taught Bob Caton a few things.
One of them is patience. His Highlands Ranch Falcons employed a bit of it on Tuesday night to handle visiting Aurora Central 50-39 in Class 5A nonleague.
“We took care of the ball and when you do that, good things can happen,” said Caton, who was honored before the game for winning his 500th career game. The milestone came in the Cherry Creek tournament on Dec. 19 and Highlands Ranch had a ceremony, which also included some of Caton’s former players, to honor him before tipoff.
“Real nice” is how Caton described the attention thrown his way.
Falcons senior Ryley Stewart said “it’s nice to have somebody who’s experienced and successful.”
Now 5-6 before they head into Continental League play, the Falcons trailed only in the opening miniutes before gradually taking control. They seemed to value their possessions by being deliberate and repeatedly found the open player for shots after multiple passes.
Highlands Ranch led 12-6 after a quarter and 20-14 at halftime in an unusually slower tempo, but opened it up some in the second half behind Stewart, Keith Coleman and Patrick Sullivan. Stewart had 14 points, and Coleman and Sullivan 11 each.
The Falcons shot only seven free throws, but didn’t miss, including Sullivan’s 6-for-6 in the fourth quarter.
It’s a formula the Falcons could get used to, Stewart said.
“We were working to get easy shots,” he said. “We didn’t have a real big lead (early), but we were picking up the whole team and we got the win.”
Aurora Central (7-5), which will meet Rangeview on Thursday in nonleague before meeting the Raiders in the East Metro next month, began slowly, threatened a few times, but didn’t keep up late. Only four Trojans scored. Coach Ian Calvert’s guys were led by Elijah Coleman’s game-high 22 points and LaDarius Thomas’ 12.
Aurora Central 6 8 11 14 — 39
Highlands Ranch 12 8 12 18 — 50
Aurora Central — LaD. Thomas 5 1-2 12, M. Johnson 0 0-2 0, Lar. Thomas 1 0-0 3, Coleman 7 4-4 22, Porter 0 0-2 0, Balde 0 0-0 0, D. Johnson 1 0-0 2. Totals 14 5-8 39.
Highlands Ranch — Fiddler 3 1-1 7, Holewinski 3 0-0 7, P. Sullivan 2 6-6 11, Stewart 6 0-0 14, Coleman 5 0-0 11, Olson 0 0-0 0, B. Sullivan 0 0-0 0, Gilbert 0 0-0 0, Jeffords 0 0-0 0, Mesfin 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 7-7 50.
3-pt. goals — Coleman 4, Lad. Thomas, Lar. Thomas; Stewart 2, Coleman, Holewinski, Sulliva. Fouled Out — None. Technicals — None.
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or
