Dakota Ridge senior Ian MacDonald, left, drives past Standley Lake senior Dylan Critchfield for a layup Tuesday night at Dakota Ridge High School. The Eagles won 56-50 to extend their winning streak to six games. (Dennis Pleuss)
LITTLETON — It was clearly a team effort Tuesday night for Dakota Ridge’s boys basketball team in its Class 5A Jeffco League battle against Standley Lake.
Dakota Ridge (7-1, 2-0 in league) ran its winning streak to six games with a 56-50 victory over the Gators (6-4, 1-2). The key for the Eagles was a balanced scoring attack, led by seniors Jake Flores (12 points) and Jake Jones (11 points).
“I think we’ve almost had a different leading scorer almost every single game, which is good,” Dakota Ridge coach Curi Yutzy said of eight different players scoring in the conference win. “We have a nice balanced attack. We have a lot of guys who contribute.”
Standley Lake senior Marcus Asmus (33) sets up for a jumper over Dakota Ridge junior Alden Erickson on Tuesday night. Asmus had 35 points in the Gators’ loss. (Dennis Pleuss)
A lot of defensive pressure early by Dakota Ridge led to some easy buckets. The Eagles jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never trailed.
“We worked on trying to get a lot of ball pressure on,” Yutzy said on counteracting Standley Lake’s size advantage. “Obviously, we started on an 8-0 run and that was nice.”
Flores scored on a driving layup with 3:23 left in the fourth quarter, giving the Eagles their largest lead of the night, 48-36. However, one of the premier scorers in the state wouldn’t allow the Gators to go quietly.
Standley Lake senior Marcus Asmus kept the Gators above water for the majority of the night while pouring in a game-high 35 points.
“(Asmus) has worked so hard in the offseason,” Standley Lake coach Mike Puccio said his 6-foot-7 senior who drained three 3-pointers to go along with a solid inside game. “He went from strictly a post guy to a guy who has really worked on his game. It’s a nice story.”
Standley Lake’s 6-foot-8 senior Dylan Critchfield finished with six points, while juniors Jeremy Minnick, Lukas Gaudermann and sophomore Eric Turner each hit a 3-pointer to wrap up the scoring for the Gators.
Dakota Ridge senior Jacob Flores soars for a layup during the second half Tuesday night. Flores had a team-high 12 points in the Eagles’ 56-50 home victory against Standley Lake. (Dennis Pleuss)
Tuesday night’s matchup featured two head coaches that are Jeffco products. Yutzy, a 2000 graduate of Chatfield High School, is in his sixth year at the helm of Dakota Ridge’s boys basketball program. Puccio, a 2000 graduate of Green Mountain High School, is in also in his sixth season as the head coach at Standley Lake.
“Curi was a great player and he is doing a great job here,” Puccio said. “They play great. They are hard to guard. I like that team a lot.”
Yutzy and Puccio played against each other in high school and when both were at Division II college programs. They actually played together for a semipro basketball team — Colorado Crossover — eight years ago before both got their head coaching gigs.
“Puccio is a wonderful coach. He gets the most out of his kids every single year,” Yutzy said. “He is a heck of a coach and a heck of a person.”
Dakota Ridge continues conference play at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10, when it host area rival Columbine (3-6, 1-1 in league).
“We’ve done a lot of great things, but we still have a lot more to do,” Flores said. “We’ve got a lot of room to grow. We can still get a lot better.”
The Rebels played an extremely challenging non-league schedule that featured three 5A teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the CHSAANow.com poll, along with 4A’s top-ranked Valor Christian. Columbine showed it could be in the mix for a league title after handing Standley Lake its first league defeat coming off winter break Jan. 4. The Gators were outscored 31-18 in the fourth quarter in the loss to the Rebels.
“We’ve got to do some things better,” Puccio said. “The effort was there tonight, minus some spots in the first quarter. I thought the guys played really hard tonight.”
Standley Lake’s next contest is at home against Arvada West (6-3, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10.
Standley Lake senior Dylan Critchfield, right, goes up for a shot over Dakota Ridge junior Alden Erickson during the first half Tuesday night. (Dennis Pleuss)