Before their season began, the Rock Canyon Jaguars picked their “Foxhole” player — the team captain they could rely on in the clutch. Senior Davis May was the clear choice.
He proved why on Friday night, leading sixth-seeded Rock Canyon to a convincing 75-60 win over No. 1 Chaparral in the Class 6A semifinals at the Denver Coliseum. May scored 19 points on 7 of 8 shooting (2 of 3 from downtown) and dished out four assists.
“Being the ‘Foxhole’ leader, the captain, means so much to me, knowing the guys could count on me,” May said.
Coach Kent Grams already knew they could.
“Davis is such a special kid, I love him so much. He plays with such passion and heart,” said Grams, who finally made it to the championship game in his 14th season with the Jags.
This is Grams’ third Final Four, and he finally broke through — against a formidable opponent. Rock Canyon will play No. 2 Ralston Valley for the title on Saturday. Ralston Valley dominated Rangeview in the late game, winning 61-49.
Late in the Jaguars victory, they broke broke Chaparral’s full-court press with surprising ease, May spotted Kai Valentine flying to the hoop and fed him with a perfect pass for an alley-oop dunk for an exclamation point in the Jaguars’ upset victory. Valentine, who scored 15 points, threw his arms up and celebrated with the raucous Rock Canyon student body.
“It was so amazing,” May said. “In practice, we work on finishing games all of the time and extending our leads. That’s exactly what we did tonight. It was all so good.
“I just got more confident as the season went along, and I felt like I played like it tonight. Our whole team did.”
The Wolverines, led by sweet-shooting senior guard Christian Williams, have owned Rock Canyon over the last two seasons. The Wolverines beat the Jaguars in last year’s Sweet 16. Then the Wolverines beat them twice — 54-50 and 75-60 — in the regular season.
But Rock Canyon (24-5) was the better team Friday night, even though Williams scored a game-high 25 points on 7 of 19 shooting, making 5 of 9 long-range 3-pointers.
“Christian is phenomenal, Luke Williams is phenomenal, (Luke) Howery is phenomenal,” Grams said. “We knew they were going to get theirs. A lack of consistent offense hurt us in previous games and in the Sweet 16 last year. So we really focused on our offense.”
Rock Canyon shot lights out, at 62.2%, while Chaparral shot just 41 percent.
The first half was tight. There were five lead changes and four ties as both teams tried to find their rhythm.
May found it for Rock Canyon late in the second quarter. The guard nailed two long 3-pointers and scored a layup off a beautiful backdoor cut. He finished the first half with 10 points.
Williams opened the game as if he would own it, scoring seven of Chaparral’s first nine points. But then Cooper Ellwood put the clamps on Williams, shutting him out for 1 1/2 quarters.
Williams heated up late, but by then, the Jaguars were already punching their ticket to the title game.
Chaparral’s season ended with a 24-3 record and thoughts of what could have been.
No. 2 Ralston Valley 69, No. 3 Rangeview 49
Behind a sensational long-range shooting performance by seniors Caiden Braketa (26 points), the Mustangs dominated Rangeview for much of the game.
Ralston Valley now plays for its first state title since 2003.
The game’s key moment came in the third quarter when Rangeview rallied to cut the Mustangs’ lead to 43-40. But Braketa drained two consecutive 3-pointers to regain control. The public address announced spiced things up with a call of “That shot was from the 16th Street Mall!”
Zeke Andrews added 19 points for Ralston Valley.
Rangeview was led by Marceles Duncan’s 16-point performance. His shooting and defense kept Rangeview in the game until the Mustangs ran away late.
