Standley Lake Cans Golden
By Matt Langley
www.BasketballColorado.com
12/23/2013
Denver, CO – In a Jeffco 4A/5A match up the 5A Standley Lake Gators (6-2) rolled past the 4A Golden Demons (7-2) at the Pepsi Center Monday afternoon, 47-36. With the win the Gators eclipsed last year win total. “They’re much better, they’re a year older, they’re a summer and fall improved. They worked their butt’s off..any success we have is a credit to their hard work in the summer,” said Standley Lake Head Coach Mike Puccio.
Both teams struggled at first to acclimate to the NBA sized court and arena with the Gators grabbing a 10-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. “We try to make things hard on teams, I dont know if we are to credit for that or if it was just the scenery, ” said Puccio about his team holding Golden to 1 point for the first 11:00 of game time. “The depth perception is different, the rims are different. It’s a tough place for these kids to come out with a 15 minute warm up and try to execute.”
Standley Lake senior forward Dylan Critchfield was able to execute just fine on the big stage. After Golden had cut the Gator lead to two points 17-15 earlier in the third quarter following a three point play by senior forward Rory MacCallum, Critchfield took over. The 6’7 senior forward outscored the Demons 10-8 by himself in the quarter, hitting 15 ft. jumper after 15 ft. jumper. After a rare Critchfield miss, Gator senior forward Marcus Asmus gathered and put back the offensive rebound while being fouled to push the lead back to double digits, 26-15. The Demons never seriously challenged for the lead again, with Gators maintaining a double digit lead the entire fourth quarter.
Critchfield and Asmus both had double-doubles in the game. Critchfield led all scorers with 17 points and 12 rebounds while Asmus tallied 11 points and 11 rebounds. The Demons were lead in scoring by junior Cole Greff with nine points. Golden also played with out one of it’s lead scorers, sophomore Ryan Blodgett who had been averaging close to 13 ppg.
