Denver East Claims Crown

In the stifling hot gymnasiums of Manual High School, Denver East outlasted Lincoln and Rangeview to take the Denver East Summer League Championship.

In the first semi-final game of the night, East took on DPL rival Lincoln.  East’s defensive pressure and rebounding was too much for Lincoln and the game was out of reach by halftime. The usual East starters of Dom Collier, Jevon Griffin, Ronnie Harrell, Tyre Robinson and Brian Carey all finished in double figures.

Rangeview and Cherokee Trail tangled in the second semi-final game.  The first half was a back and forth contest with Rangeview eventually building a 10 point lead behind three straight three pointers from junior  Tim Wyatt. Sophomore Ronnie Barfield led the way for Cherokee Trail in the first half with nine points. Rangeview’s Jeremiah Paige scored 10 of his 17 points after halftime as Rangeview began to pull away in the second half.

In the finals, two of the states top guards CU commit Dom Collier and CSU commit Jeremiah Paige faced off with each other. Collier and Paige both started the game off hot exchanging a number of baskets with each other. Paige scored 11, while Collier scored 15 points in the first half.  Rangeview erased a 10 point East lead, but the Raiders went cold the last 10 minutes of the game. East then went on a classic balanced run and built a 15 point lead with 2:00 left in the game.  Again Collier, Griffin, Harrell, and Robinson all scored in double figures.

Notes

As mentioned before, Cherokee Trail is young and talented led by sophomores  Ronnie Barfield and David Thornton.

Rangeview’s style of play gives plenty of teams fits, because they can all run and they will all shoot the three. And when I say all, I mean all, not just Jeremiah Paige.

Lincoln has a really solid point guard in Michael Sparks.

It is well documented on how talented East’s starting five is but a run to Boulder might depend on how talented they are coming off the bench.