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Denver East junior Jevon Griffin shoots
a lay-up in the first quarter against
Highlands Ranch.
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East Erases Highlands Ranch
By Matt Langley
LangleyScouting,blogspot.com
2/9/2013
Denver, CO- When Denver East and Highlands Ranch High Schools meet up, it is supposed to be a battle of the city school versus the suburban school. Saturday night at the Magnus Arena at the University of Denver it wasn’t even a mere skirmish. The Denver East Angels used its superior guard play and tenacious defense to clip the wings of the Falcons of Highlands Ranch and walked away with a 73-54 victory.
The Angels started off with an 8-0 run in the first 1:15 of the game. The Angels used defense to set up its potent offense that scored 22 points in the first quarter. When the Falcons were able to set up a zone defense, the East guards of Dom Collier, Ronnie Harrell, Jevon Griffin, and Brian Carey were able to carve it to pieces. Collier and Harrell rained in three pointers while Cary and Griffin were able to penetrate and finish or pass off to Forward Tyre Robinson for a dunk. The Falcons, pressured by solid half court man defense by East, were unable to get any offensive continuity in the quarter. Highlands Ranch was also whistled for a technical foul after one of its players pushed Collier after a play that turned into five points for the Angels. Collier paced the Angels with 10 points in the first quarter.
The second quarter the Angels soared with a 26 point quarter. Again anchored by a defense that created turnovers and controlled the boards, the Angels went on a 10-0 run in the first few minutes of the second quarter. The Angels had pressed the lead to 23 points after a nasty one handed put back dunk by Robinson with 1:20 left in the quarter. The Falcons were able to get a few more open shots in the quarter, but they could not get any thing to fall, scoring only 12 points in the quarter, five of which where scored by junior Evan Motlong, Collier again led the Angels in scoring erupting for five of his nine points in the last minute of the quarter to give East a 46-21 lead at the half.
The Falcons came out and held East to only five points in the first 3:00 minutes of the third quarter, but again Ranch was unable to capitalize, only scoring four points. The Angels looked somewhat unfocused as the crisp passing and ball handling gave way to poor passes and turnovers. The Falcons took advantage and behind seven points from Motlong scored 15-points in the quarter. However, that only erased one point from East’s 25-point half-time lead.
East opened the fourth quarter leading 61-36 and then promptly scored nine unanswered points, four by Griffin, to take a 67-36 lead with 4:46 remaining in the game. East pulled most of the regular players out of the game with 4:00 left. The Falcons were able to score 18 points in the quarter, most of which came against the East reserves.
Collier led all scorers with 24 points, Griffin had 17, and Robinson added 12. Highlands Ranch was led by Motlong’s 14 points, while Patrick Sullivan added 10.
East has three games left in the regular season. Its stiffest competition may come from Denver South, the last game of the season.