Bar & Bello Beat East
It wasn’t the prettiest game that has been played at the ThunderDome when Denver East and Montbello matched up Saturday afternoon for a DPL tilt. Montbello took advantage of Denver East’s lack of focus and Melek Bar’s career day to beat East for the first time since the 09-10 season.
The first half was riddled by fouls, turnovers, missed layups and miss free throws for both teams. Senior wing Sekou Cisse got the scoring going for the Warriors scoring the first four points of the game. It would take East four minutes to score it first field goal of the game. East looked tired and unfocused as it finished a tough week. Bar scored the Warriors last five points of the quarter to give the Warriors a 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Baskets were hard to come by for East in the second quarter unless you were senior wing Deron Harrell. Harrell was one of the few players that was able to flourish against the Warriors defense scoring 1o points in the quarter. Both teams still struggled to get into any kind of real flow in the quarter with quick whistles and turnovers ruining the flow. Neither team was able to gain an advantage on the offensive boards either with multiple trips of one and dones. The Warriors grabbed a 26-17 lead after Bar connected on a deep three with under two minutes left. This how the quarter ended.
The Warriors could have pushed the lead even further if they had not have gone a putrid 2-9 from the free throw line in the quarter.
Joe Nelson the freshmen guard sank a floater to give the Warriors a 31-21 lead to start the second half and the Angels would get no closer. Montbellos length on defense was an issue for East and led to a number of turnovers. East had opportunities to climb back in the game with Montbello getting assessed two technical fouls in the second half one of which lead to Cisse fouling out of the game. But East failed to convert at the free throw line or on the ensuing possessions. Denver East was 22 of 37 from the free throw line while Montbello was 14 of 31 for the game. Bar was the only one that could hit a free throw going 8 for 8 in the final quarter to maintain the Warrior lead. Warriors won going away 62-45.
Double Digit Scorers
Montbello
Melek Bar 24
Sekou Cisse 11
Aris Bonds 12
Denver East
Deron Harrell 15
Daytone Jennings 11
