East Emphatically Defeats George Washington

By Matt Langley

LangleyScouting.blogspot.com

2/16/2013

Denver, CO – “Pay Heed All Who Enter…Beware of the BEAST” is what should be printed on the tournament brackets handed out next weekend for the 5A State Basketball Tournament.  The Denver East Angels handed the George Washington Patriots it’s worst loss this season and possibly ever Saturday afternoon at the Thunderdome 82-20.  If the first quarter, the Patriots showed some fight, but it was soon over run by the Angels, and the game was decided by halftime.

            The Angels started the game off with an 8-0 run with both junior guards Dom Collier and J.J. Griffin showing off their scoring prowess.  Patriots senior point guard Michael Hudgens scored all five of his points in the span of a minute to pull the Patriots to within one-point, 7-8 with 4:40 left in the period. However, the Angels led by its stingy defense outscored the Patriots 8-2 in the last 2:30 of the quarter to take a 21-9 lead.

            While Washington’s shooting struggles continued, the Angels, led by Griffin, continued the scoring barrage. Griffin scored 12 of East’s 21 points in the quarter.  George Washington was unable to match East’s scoring output.  The aggressive Angels’ defense took advantage of it size in the paint as well as bad Patriots’ passing and shooting to hold the Patriots to only six points in the quarter.  The Angels took a 42-15 lead into the locker room at halftime and was not seriously challenged in the second half.

            East started off hot again in the third quarter scoring 16 points in the first 4:30.  GW was again held to just four points in the quarter struggling to get any shot to fall. East pushed its lead to 64-19 at the end of the quarter behind 8 points from junior Tyre Robinson.  The East bench clearing began before the end of the third quarter and continued into the fourth with all of the regular players being pulled out of the game with 7:00 minutes left in the game. The East reserves spent much of the time taking time off the clock and not looking to score. The East guards would drive into the lane then kick out to another guard to eat more time off the clock.  East did not score any field goals in the quarter until senior Bassey Antai made 3 three-pointers in the last 2:00 minutes of the game. Washington’s shooting woes continued, only scoring one point from a free throw in the final 8:00.  The Patriots shooting performance was historically bad, making only 8 field goals for the game.  Some of the issue was the East defense, the Patriots leading scorer Jevon Taylor was held to just 4 points and was not allowed any clean looks at the basket for the entire game.  Another scoring problem for the Patriots was they lack an offensive option in the post. That allowed the East guards to put a lot of pressure on the Washington guards, keeping them out of the paint and forcing the Washington guards to take deeper jump shots than normal. The final issue was when the Patriots did get open shot at the basket, they were just unable to get any of them to fall

            The scary part is that East did all of that without its best shooter and starter, Ronnie Harrell.  With the win, East wrapped up another DPL crown.