Today was the final day of the “regular season” for DESL. The first few games of the night were very competitive and intense however the last two were very one-sided.
In one 6:00 game at Manual High School featured Thomas Jefferson led by Eric and Tre Andres versus Cherokee Trail and Jay Nelson and Roderick Bernstine. Eric and Tre had solid but not dominate games. 6’5 F Eric does all the work inside and is still raw offensively and robotic at times. he is effective but could be so much more. 6’6 G/F Tre spends most of his time on the wing but does venture into the paint on occasion. Both of these players suffer from Colorado ‘s infamous rule: if your taller than 6’3 you can not handle the ball or play facing the basket. So both of their ball handling skills are not the greatest although Tre can bring the ball up the court in a pinch.
Cherokee Trail’s 6’1 G Jay Nelson and 6’6 G/F Roderick Bernstein also had solid games. Nelson helped kickstart Cherokee Trail in the second half with back to back three pointers and Roderick displayed a 12 foot jumper and had a nice put back dunk. Nelson has played off the ball it seems this summer and does okay picking his spots when to attack. Bernstein is still making progress in his transition to becoming a wing player. However, the more comfortable he gets on the wing it appears he gets less comfortable in the post. Especially on offense.
Trail won the game 59-50.
The other 6:00 game at Manual showcased John F. Kennedy and 5’11 G Reggie Hammons versus Montbello and 5’11 G Kedrick Stewart. The game started off horribly for Montbello falling behind 12-3. The Warriors could never recover. They were trying to make a comeback down six points with five minutes left in the game when a Montbello player received a technical foul and basically ended the comeback.
The Reggie Hammonds vs Kedrick Stewart match-up was basically not existent. There was only a few plays were they guarded each other. Stewart forced Hammonds right which he does not like to use his right and Hammons was fast enough to not allow Stewart by him. Stewart relies on his quickness and athleticism to get by defenders, if he cant out run you he will probably turn the ball over.
Devin Oliver was a nice surprise for Montbello. The 5’11 guard was most effective attacking the basket and cleaning up inside. He played with a lot of effort. The best guard this night was JFK’s Melo Washington. No one was really able to contain him at the start of the game getting JFK’s first 10 points. Under 5’10 the kid is fearless and plays like he is 6’2. He is a more than adequate finisher around the basket.
The other big match up between Alex Coleman and Karmoko Cisse did not happen as Cisse did not play. However JFK has another “big” on the way 6’6 Rajon Huebert. He is still very raw and growing into his body but he moves very well. He is long, which helps him on the defensive end of the floor. Offensively he still needs time to develop.
Thomas Jefferson and Thunder Ridge met for the 7:00 game at Manual. In this game TJ’s guards played better than before while the Andres brothers had solid game again. TJ’s top guards where 6’0 Aaron Hendricks, 6’1 Cameron Brown, and 5’10 Sergio Garcia. Garcia is a pass first point guard. Only a sophomore he is doing an adequate job and has room to improve. Henricks is a scorer. He can shoot the three and attack form the wing. He can get to the lane and finish or pass it off. He might have just a little too much flash which can lead to some poor decisions Overall though he has the potential to be a very good DPL guard. Brown showed he can shoot the three and and get to the paint some as well.
Thunder Ridge best player in this game was Pete Howell 6’2 F. He wasn’t flashy but he he did everything. He had a number of offensive rebounds and put backs, He also was solid defensively and even had an important block shot late in the game. 6’1 G Hunter O’Neil also has a solid game at the point. He showed good court vision and passing. Sometimes it’s hard to evaluate teams like the Thunder Ridges because they all play with in the system.
The game itself went in to over time and Howell sealed the win for Thunder Ridge, sinking two free throws with 4.3 seconds left. Both of these team will be hard to handle come the regular season.
Over at East, Denver East dominated DSST 88-35. Tyree Robinson, Dom Collier, and Brain Carey all had very solid games. One thing that I noticed that Robinson was doing was trying to finish above the rim on everything around the basket
HIghlands Ranch and Aurora Central was supposed to be a good game. However, Highlands Ranch was missing a number of varsity players and had just come off an over time loss to Denver South. Aurora Central went one to win the game 60-44 with D-1 recruit Carlton Hurst acting as a distributor for most of the game setting his teammates up and playing solid defense.