Ralston Valley senior Jonathon Gillespie, middle, attacks the basket while being contested by Chatfield seniors Darius Reiter, left, and Grant Haines, right, on Saturday night in the Class 5A Jeffco League game. (Dennis Pleuss)
LITTLETON — Jumping out to an early lead Saturday night resulted in Chatfield’s boys basketball team gaining a slight cushion atop the Class 5A Jeffco League.
The Chargers took a double-digit lead on conference foe Ralston Valley early in the second quarter and kept a fairly comfortable advantage on the way to a 74-56 victory at Chatfield High School.
“Getting the lead was really important because with zone (defense) you never know what you will get,” Chatfield coach Stephen Schimpeler said of the Chargers forcing the Mustangs to play from behind. “I felt man-to-man they weren’t as quick as us. That was a big advantage.”
Chatfield senior Andrew St. Germain, left, drives the lane against Ralston Valley senior Zac Stevens on Saturday night at Chatfield High School. The Chargers took a 74-56 victory to take sole possession of first place in the 5A Jeffco League (Dennis Pleuss)
The win put Chatfield (12-3, 7-1 in league) one game ahead of Ralston Valley (12-4, 7-2) and Arvada West (10-5, 6-2) in the league standings midway through conference play.
“It feels good, but we’ve got so much left to play for,” Chatfield senior Alec Wray said. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we do and keep getting better.”
There was a logjam at the top of 5A Jeffco just a handful of days ago. Chatfield, A-West, Dakota Ridge and Ralston Valley each entered this week with one conference loss.
Ralston Valley went through the 5A Jeffco gauntlet this week. The Mustangs defeated Dakota Ridge in overtime on Tuesday and handled A-West on Thursday, setting up Saturday’s game against Chatfield with the winner taking sole possession of first in the league.
“We just didn’t play with much energy,” Ralston Valley coach Mitch Conrad said after the Mustangs’ seven-game winning streak was snapped. “I think our tank was running a little low on this third one.”
Ralston Valley couldn’t sit back in its normally effective zone defense after the Mustangs fell behind early Saturday night. Chatfield used its speed to slice to the basket and/or dish to an open teammate.
Wray had a frustrating second and third quarter where he picked up four fouls. However, the Chargers’ 6-foot-5 center put the game away in the fourth quarter scoring nine points in the final eight minutes.
“We’ve got some good guards that can share the ball well and they can score,” said Wray, who finished with 15 points. “I love it when they are driving because I’m going to be open because the bigs have to commit to stopping the drive. It gives me the chance to score easy buckets.”
Wray dropped in three consecutive layups in a span of a minute in the final quarter after Ralston Valley had closed the Chargers’ lead to 11 points.
Chatfield senior Darius Reiter torched Ralston Valley with 33 points, including seven 3-pointers the first time around. The Chargers erased a first-half deficit to take a 73-57 victory on the Mustangs’ home court in the conference opener for both teams back in mid-December.
Chatfield senior Alec Wray goes up for two points Saturday night against Ralston Valley. Wray finished with 15 points in the Chargers’ 74-56 victory. (Dennis Pleuss)
Reiter finished with 15 points, but even more impressive was Chatfield’s bench that contributed 27 points. Sophomore Riley Welch led the way with 10 points for the Chargers’ reserves.
“Your bench is always important,” Schimpeler said. “They don’t understand how important they are. You can only go as far as your bench will take you.”
Dallas Walton led Ralston Valley with a team-high 19 points. The 6-foot-9 sophomore had a strong fourth quarter with 10 points.
“We got it in to Dallas and they wouldn’t foul him,” Conrad said of Walton’s final quarter. “He went to work, but we just didn’t have a spark tonight. Defensively we were just slow on our rotations. Mentally I think we’re exhausted.”
After playing three big games in five days, Ralston Valley faces Columbine on the road at 7 p.m. next Wednesday, before hosting Lakewood at 7 p.m. Friday.
Chatfield has a pair of league road games next week. First, 7 p.m. Wednesday at Lakewood followed by a 7 p.m. game Friday at Pomona. The Tigers (10-6, 5-4) have worked their way back into contention in the conference with a six-game winning streak, but that was snapped Saturday night with a 71-54 loss to A-West.
Conrad believes it would be difficult for any 5A Jeffco team to run the table for the remainder of the conference schedule.
“(Chatfield) is in the driver’s seat so everyone is going to be gunning for them,” Conrad said. “It’s going to be interesting. It’s going to be a battle.”
Chatfield sophomore Riley Welch (15) puts defensive pressure on Ralston Valley senior Rane Hornecker during the second half Saturday night at Chatfield High School. (Dennis Pleuss)