Carey’s 44 Lifts Denver East Over ThunderRidge

By Matt Langley

www.BasketballColorado.com

01/03/15

 

Denver, CO –  The one thing you can count on when Denver East and ThunderRidge meet up is that it won’t be boring.  Denver East senior point guard Brian Carey made sure that this years edition was no exception. Carey scored 20 of East’s 27 points in the fourth quarter  to give East a 63-59 victory over the Grizzlies at the ThunderDome Saturday afternoon. 

The game started out a bit sloppy as both teams worked to knock of the Christmas Break rust. ThunderRidge was able to keep East from scoring a field goal until 3:40 left in the quarter when junior Deron Harrell made a bucket. The Grizzlies themselves didn’t fair much better as they went on a three minute scoring drought of there own. ThunderRidge lead 11-10 at the end of the first quarter but Carey had 6 of the Angels 10 points going 4-4 from the free-throw line.

Carey continued his streak from the free throw line going 4-4 in the quarter and scoring 9 of Easts 13 points in the quarter. The highlight of the quarter for East however was senior Ben Potts high flying one handed put back dunk off a missed three pointer that gave East a brief lead. ThunderRidge was able to take a 26-23 halftime lead behind balanced scoring of junior Austin Mueller and senior guard Nick Varto.

In the beginning of the 3rd quarter had a great flow with both teams being able to score and the refs swallowing their whistles a bit . Both teams combined for 12 points in the first two minutes of play. Then ThunderRidge went on a 7-0 to push their lead to 39-29 with 4:45 left in the quarter. Senior guard Elias Tiedgen scored six points in the quarter along with grabbing key rebounds and making great passes. Carey again carried the scoring load in the quarter with 9 points but East failed to make a field goal the last four minutes of the quarter. ThunderRidge only scored two points in the last three minutes of the quarter as well but maintained a 44-36 lead.

The fourth quarter didn’t start out well for either team. First two minutes of the quarter was riddled with fouls and stoppages. With six minutes left Carey took over the game scoring eight points in minute cutting the lead to five points. Then Harrell scored four points for the Angels to cut the Grizzlies lead to 49-48.  Meanwhile the Grizzlies were frustrated by East’s half court trap that resulted in turnovers and multiple one shot possessions. ThunderRidge senior big man Zach Pirog fouled out with three minutes left in the game.  East took its first lead since the second quarter after two made free throws by Carey with 2:11 left in the game. Tiedgen answered for the Grizzlies with a three pointer that gave the Grizzlies a 54-52 lead. On the next possession Carey drove to the basket and Tiedgen was called for his fifth foul. Carey made his first free throw but missed his second the offensive rebound got to Carey who then nailed a deep three to give East the 56-54 lead.  East wouldn’t trail again making 6 of 7 free throws to claim the 63-59 win. Carey went 11 of 12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

Double digit scorers

Thunder Ridge

Austin Mueller 15

Elias Tiedgen 16

Zach Pirog 10

Denver East

Brian Carey 44