More photos. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
AURORA — Saturday night had a prime matchup on tap as CHSAANow.com’s No. 3 ranked Regis Jesuit played host to No. 5 Rock Canyon with both squads looking to close the season strong.
Unfortunately for the Jaguars (18-3 overall, 7-1 Continental League), they weren’t able to earn the win as the Raiders (18-3, 7-1) defeated them 57-47 in a grinder.
Both teams were struggled to find a rhythm on the offensive end in the early part of the first as the first bucket of the game was scored halfway through the quarter by the Jaguars. However once the ice was broken, the Raiders exploded closing out the quarter on a 14-3 scoring run, giving them a 14-5 lead heading into the second.
Heading into halftime, the inconsistency offensively for both squads really was the story of the game as both Regis and Rock Canyon seemed to be playing too fast for their own good. That’s when Jaguars coach Kent Grams knew he had to shake things up to get his team a spark.
When asked about his thought process behind switching to a one-three-one trap zone coming out of halftime, Grams needed a way to force the disciplined Raiders into some errors.
“They’re just so disciplined, they can take off four minutes on the clock and they’re not concerned about it and when they have the lead, we have to find ways to change the momentum and try and speed them up,” Grams said. “I thought defensively, our game-plan was right. To hold a team to 57 points on their home-court, especially a team like Regis that’s averaging 80 points a game, that’s pretty good defense but we have to shoot the ball and that’s what it comes down to; we have to execute, guys have to step up.”
More photos. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Rock Canyon would find a way to cut the deficit to four points as they went into the third period down 28-24, but the lack of consistent offense really plagued them as they tried to close out the game.
“We did get some good looks, maybe it was rushed,” Grams stated. “But no excuses, we have to step up and make shots. We had open looks. They did a great job, their game-plan was right, sag off and let other people beat them and take away Sam Masten. We have to get back into the gym and work, we’re better shooters than that.”
And although Regis didn’t have the most productive night offensively themselves, when they needed a bucket or crucial run to push the game out of reach, they did it the only way they know best: all-around team basketball.
“We try to be as consistent as we can,” Regis Jesuit coach Ken Shaw said. “We try to do it by team committee, we don’t have one guy that we can necessarily go to and he can bail us out so to speak.
We have to do it as a group and whether it be defensively or offensively, our guys just hung on tonight and played hard, and we’re glad to beat a solid team like Rock Canyon.”
Trailing for much of the fourth, it seemed as if the Jaguars would ultimately concede this game on the road, until a clutch 3-pointer from Jaguar senior Isaac Hirsch brought his team within five with 41 seconds remaining in the game.
Conversely that’s as close as Rock Canyon would get as a flagrant foul committed by Jaguar junior Colin Rardin, on an inbound where his team was looking to get a steal, seemingly cost them the game. The fould would ultimately send the leading scorer of tonight’s game with 25 points, Regis senior Michael Wambsganss, to the line to close things out.
Although it wasn’t necessarily pretty, Regis earned a solid victory against a tough opponent in Rock Canyon, and coach Shaw and his players know that. Even though they aren’t the flashiest team or the most skilled, they know that as a unit they control their own destiny.
“We’re smart, we shoot the ball well, and we play cerebral basketball,” coach Shaw said when asked about how far this team can go in the tournament. “In close games this year, we’ve won quite a few and that’s not by accident, so we’ll see where it takes us.”