#3 Legend Defeats #7 Denver East 77-74
The #3 Legend Titans defeated the #7 Denver East Angels Tuesday night at Denver East High School in a back and forth contest that at one point in the first half featured more fouls than made field goals. However the fouling eased up in the second half allowing both teams to find a flow and turning what was a bad game into a fairly good game between top ten teams. The game however came down to which team could take advantage of the whistles and make their free throws.
The first half was dictated by the whistle. The referees obviously enforcing the point of emphasis hand check rule which took any flow out of the game. Each team had a quarter where they made only three field goals, East came in the first quarter but shot 14 of 20 free throws. Legends came in the 2nd quarter but shot 8 of 8 from the charity stripe. Neither team was able to pull away in the first quarter with Legend building a lead of five points with after junior Blake Fields made a lay up with 1:08 left in the quarter but East answered with four unanswered points to make the score 22-21. Fields lead the Titans in with 8 points in the first half.
In the second quarter the Titans built an eight point lead by the mid way point in the quarter after two free throws from senior guard Riley Matticks. Then Angel senior guard Jack Buckmelter who scored 14 of his game high 27 points in the first half ignited a 13-6 run to give the Angels a 37-36 lead at halftime.
The second half had a much better flow with the team being able to get up and down the floor. Neither team was able to gain a lead larger than six points in the third quarter. East’s Buckmelter and senior forward Daytone Jennings had Legend run stopping baskets. Meanwhile, Legend senior guard Monroe Porter created turnovers at the top of Titans zone defense to answer East runs. Titan senior wing Danny Garrick scored with 55 seconds lectin the the third quarter to give Legend a 56-52 lead but that was soon cut to 56-55 with a Buckmelter three.
The Angles held the Titans to only two points in first four minutes of the 4th quarter and looked like the Titans had panicked a bit settling for three’s or tough shots instead of attacking the basket. The Angels built an eight point lead and looked poised to extend they lead. Thats when Porter got hot for the Titans Scoring 11 points in the final three minutes of the game with none bigger then his three pointer with 1:13 to cut the Angel lead to 74-72. Legend Connor McCord had a great last minute of the game scoring on two put backs on to tie the game and the other to take the lead.
Buckmelter had a look at three pointer to tie the game but it glanced off the front of the rim. Garrick grabbed the rebound and then made 1 of 2 free throws to give Legend the 77-74 victory.
Free Throws were a huge part of this game Legend made 16 of 20 while East made 11 of 36.
Double Digit Scorers:
East -Buckmelter -27 Harrell- 11 Jennings- 17 10+ rebounds
Legend – McCord 14 Porter 17 Matticks 12 Garrick 10 Fields 10
