#2 ThunderRidge Stuffs # 4 Rock Canyon
By Matt Langley
www.BasketballColorado.com
1/30/2015
Highlands Ranch, CO – Senior post Zach Pirog lead the #3 ThunderRidge Grizzlies over the # 4 Rock Canyon Jaguars Friday night at Rock Canyon 61-51. The senior big man threw in 28 points and grabbed at least 15 rebounds while dominating the lane on both ends of the floor. While the Jaguars had no answer in the post for Priog they did get a few precious chances at the rim with out the 6’10 shot blocker hovering about but they were unable to convert and to make matters worse shot 66% from the free throw line.
The atmosphere was very electric with both student bodies being loud and in rare form. Which may have effected the Jaguars as everyone missed in the first quarter but junior guard Isaac Hirsch. Hirsch, the do it all guard, scored the first seven points for the Jaguars to tie the score 7-7 with about 2 minutes left in the quarter. The Grizzlies seemed less phased by the crowd and held the Jaguars scoreless for the last two minutes of the quarter, did not allow any offensive rebounds and Pirog scored six points in the quarter.
To say that the Jaguars struggled to score in the second quarter is putting it lightly. The Grizzly defense was stellar in the quarter only allowing Rock Canyon to score four points and the Grizzlies seemed to grab every defensive rebound they could, a number of them by Pirog. Meanwhile Priog scored more than half of ThunderRidge’s points in the quarter. The Grizzlies lead at the half 23-11.
The scoring pace of the game picked up in the second half. Both teams were aggressive with their shot selection and it paid off. Mitch Lombard the senior guard from Rock Canyon started attacking the basket and scored 1o points. Meanwhile Pirog dropped 10 points himself in the quarter. But the biggest shot came at the third quarter buzzer with ThunderRidge leading 42-29.
The shot by Szilagyi increased the ThunderRidge lead to 16 points at the end of the 3rd quarter.
The fourth quarter was a free-throw marathon. The whistles that were non-existent in the first half were now all too familiar. Rock Canyon shot 18 free throws while ThunderRidge shot 22 in the final quarter. ThunderRidge only made two field goals in the quarter one by Pirog and the other by Szilagyi. Pirog and Company still controlled the boards though and Rock Canyon could never string together a series of stops to make a serious run at ThunderRidge even though the Jaguars had cut the lead to seven with 39 seconds left.
Double Digit scorers
ThunderRidge
Pirog-28 points 15 rebounds
Szilagyi – 12
Rock Canyon
Lombard 20
Tyler Garcia 10
Hirsch 15
