(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — If the Valor Christian boys basketball team did not have the attention of everyone in Class 4A, they do now.
Behind 18 points from Kayle Knuckles and 17 points from Jalen Sanders, the CHSAANow.com No. 2 ranked Eagles dismantled No. 7 Air Academy 77-53 Friday night. The Kadets were last year’s state champions.
“It’s a great confidence booster,” Sanders said. “Just to be able to come into the defending champ’s place and beat them by more than 20.”
And the Eagles did it by playing aggressive. From the start of the game, they applied a full-court press that appeared to give the Kadets fits at times. Air Academy turned the ball over several times early and the Eagles capitalized to take an early edge.
The Kadets were finally able to settle down and close the gap. The Eagles led 17-13 after the first quarter.
“I thought we played with them for stretches,” Kadets coach Barry Clark said. “Then there’d be a two or three minute stretch where we’d make a whole bunch of mistakes and they’d snowball and Valor would get five or six points on us.”
That became a consistent theme in the second quarter, with Sanders leading the charge. He scored 10 of his 17 points in the second quarter and helped the Eagles push the lead to 36-21 at the half.
When Sanders wasn’t scoring it was the big man, Knuckles, who helped push the pace on the offensive side of the glass. Of his game-high 18, he also scored 10 in the first 16 minutes.
And the Eagles were able to distribute the ball beyond that. In all, they had four players score in double digits. That’s a pattern that first-year Valor coach Troy Pachner would like to see on a consistent basis this year.
“On any given night, we literally have five guys that can score their 20,” he said. “We talk about team score all the time. We’ve coached some great individual scorers in the past, but boy, if you have four or five guys that can go, it’s impossible to guard.”
And a suffocating defense only helps. The Kadets were able to keep the game close when Nate Rendrew and Tabor Morse were getting buckets in the first half. Renfrew scored nine in the first two quarters while Morse hit three shots for six points.
In the second, both players were rendered ineffective. Morse hit one basket, which he was fouled on, and also sank the free throw. Those were the only three points scored between the two Air Academy players. Henry Yocum led all Kadet scorers with 11 points.
“Last year we really didn’t press too much,” Sanders said. “We saw on film that they couldn’t handle the press that well so we just tried to execute it.”
The Kadets might be reeling after the loss, but they did lose the core of their state championship team from last year. Clark has a lot of players who didn’t see a lot of varsity time so he knows he’ll have some work to do to get them back to championship form.
“That’s what practice is for,” Clark said. “So yeah, that’s our goal.”
As for the Eagles, they’re just getting started. They still don’t have a full roster as Dylan McCaffrey missed the game as he prepares to play in Saturday’s 5A football state title game. He’ll add another layer to an already dangerous team.
“We’ve got some great kids coming out when football ends,” Pachner said. “You bring in Dylan McCaffrey and several other kids and put them in this mix and we really like our depth.”