LITTLETON — It was the epitome of Dakota Ridge’s surprisingly successful season to date.
The Eagles’ sixth man, junior Matt Newkirk, calmly sank two free throws with 15.6 seconds to play Wednesday night to seal a 50-45 decision of host Columbine in the Class 5A Jefferson County League.
It gets better. They were Newkirk’s only points of the game. They were two of only seven combined free throws attempted in the game.
Plus, Newkirk was simply taking his turn. Dakota Ridge is devoid of stars and doesn’t have anyone averaging more than 12.5 points, yet moved to 12-0 overall, 3-0 in Jeffco.
Coach Curi Yutzy is thrilled about his guys so far.
“Did I think we’d be 12-0? Probably not,” Yutzy said. “To be honest, I haven’t thought about it. The cool part about our team is we have a lot of different guys having their moments at different times.”
Newkirk’s couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I was just thinking about shooting the free throws,” he said.
Now No. 3 in The Associated Press 5A media poll, the Eagles seem to be enjoying it as well as keeping it within context.
“No. 1, it gets these guys the recognition for how much work they put in, and the second thing that I love is we get everybody’s best efforts,” Yutzy said.
No argument here. Keaton Matthies scored 17 of Columbine’s first 28 points and finished with a game-high 24.
The Rebels (7-5, 2-1) had two chances in the closing seconds to either tie it or take the lead.
But the Eagles, behind Mason Grothuesmann (14 points), Alden Erickson (12) and Tyler McFarland (10), escaped nicely and handled a fairly strong shot of adversity.
Dakota Ridge 9 11 16 14 — 50
Columbine 9 9 14 13 — 45
Dakota Ridge — Pittman 0 0-0 0, Erickson 6 0-0 12, McFarland 4 0-1 10, Jones 1 1-2 3, Grothuesmann 6 0-1 14, Newkirk 0 2-2 2, Lukens 1 0-0 3, Kania 2 0-0 6, Bravo 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 3-6 50.
Columbine — Chavez 4 0-1 8, Tait 2 0-0 5, DeGraaf 1 0-0 2, Holden 2 0-0 4, Matthies 10 0-0 24, Anderson 0 0-0 0, Gentry 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 0-1 45.
3-pt. goals — Grothuesmann 2, Kania 2, McFarland 2, Lukens; Matthies 4, Tait. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None.
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or
