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Members of the Denver East basketball team look
on as Junior Tyre Robinson goes up for a dunk
Friday night versus TJ
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Collier’s 29 Leads Denver East Past Thomas Jefferson
By Matt Langley
Langleyscouting.blogspot.com
1/25/13
Denver, CO – In a hot and standing room only gymnasium at Thomas Jefferson High School Friday night, the visiting Denver East Angels defeated the Thomas Jefferson Spartans 75-57 in Denver Public League action. The story of the night was East’s junior guard Dom Collier. The highly touted guard scored 29 points and collected seven steals to lead the Angels passed the Class 4A 8thranked team.
The first quarter started out rough for both teams. Neither team could calm down enough to function offensively: carless passing, poor ball handling, and rushed shots hampered both teams in the first four minutes of the game. Then the action picked up as both teams’ stars took over for the rest of the quarter. East’s Collier drained 3 three-pointers scoring nine points; meanwhile, Spartan junior Treyvon Andres was doing it all for the Spartans making baskets inside and out scoring 10 points—leading to a combined 30-point outburst by the two teams in the last 3:00 of the quarter. The Spartans clung to a 3-point lead, 20-17, going into the second quarter.
In the second quarter the Angels were able to take the lead after East’s junior guard Jevon Griffin scored to put the Angels up 26-25 with 3:40 left in the second quarter. Anders attempted to keep the Spartans in the game scoring 6 of the Spartans 8 points in the quarter with a deep three-pointer and old fashion three-point play. It wouldn’t be enough though as the Angels would maintain the lead going into halftime with 6 points from junior guard Ronnie Harrell and led the Spartans 35-30.
Collier and Griffin led East to a 26-point third quarter while the Spartans struggled to score 12 points in the quarter. East’s stifling defensive pressure caused the Spartan guards into poor passes and turnovers leading to easy baskets for the Angels. As hot as Andres was in the first half leading all scorers with 16 points, he was as cold in the second scoring only 3 points as East made sure the ball didn’t get into his hands. Collier scored 9 points in the quarter including two 3-point plays and Griffin added 7. The Spartans cut the lead to single digits, 49-40, after a three pointer from the corner by senior Aaron Hendricks, but the Spartans would not get any closer. East scored 4 more points to close out the quarter and take a 53-42 lead into the fourth quarter.
East blitzed the Spartans at the beginning of the fourth quarter scoring 8 points, six of those by Collier, to push the lead to 61-42 with 6:30 left in the game. East maintained at least a 16 point lead the rest of the game. After the East starters were taken out of the game with 3:00 left, the Angels cruised to a 75-57 victory.
Griffin was the other East player in double digits scoring 21 points while Andres’ 19 points lead the Spartans.