Lakewood senior Michael Bennett (3) drives the lane Wednesday night against Wheat Ridge. Bennett scored a game-high 22 points in the Tigers’ 20-point victory over the Farmers. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — Lakewood’s boys basketball team is focused on opening up some eyes this season.
“I think we have seriously been slept on this year,” Lakewood senior Michael Bennett said after the Tigers took a 65-45 season-opening victory Wednesday night against Wheat Ridge. “We’ve got 10 seniors and we are super motivated. We all know this is our last run. We are all super dedicated to this. I’ve never be around a group of guys who are so focused on one goal to win.”
Lakewood coach Daryl Johnson returns nearly his entire varsity squad from last season. Bennett (17.6 points per game) and Kyle Wisniewski (11.3 points per game) lead a strong senior group that hopes to improve on its 10-14 record from last season.
The Tigers made the state tournament last season, but were bounced in the opening round by ThunderRidge by a score of 71-23.
The tough loss to end last season, along with not getting a single vote in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A boys basketball preseason poll clearly has the Tigers motivated.
“They have a little chip on their shoulder,” Johnson said. “They weren’t recognized in the preseason (rankings). That doesn’t mean anything, but every kids wants some love and they got none. Maybe they deserved it for what happened at the end of the season in the playoffs.”
Lakewood led most of the way Wednesday night on its home court. The Tigers slowly grew its lead to double-figures early in the second half on the way to the 20-point victory.
Wheat Ridge senior Westin Miller (3) scored 19 points for the Farmers, including five 3-pointers. However, it wasn’t enough as Wheat Ridge fell to Lakewood in both teams’ season opener. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“It couldn’t have gone really any better,” said Bennett, who led all scorers with 22 points. “Obviously we had a lot of turnovers and mistakes, but that is what you expect. A lot of us haven’t played in real basketball game for seven or eight months.”
Wisniewski contributed 14 points and Lakewood big-man John Rugh poured in a cool dozen as the Tigers showed off its versatility to play good defense, control the boards, run the court and shoot the 3-pointer.
“We’ll make some noise,” Bennett said. “I know we’ll make some noise. I can’t wait.”
Lakewood won’t have to wait long for its next game. The Tigers host Green Mountain on Friday night.
Wheat Ridge coach Tommy Dowd also has a senior-laden squad this season. The Farmers will lean heavily on seniors Westin Miller, Dominic Cross and Scotty Kingman. Miller proved to be one of the best 3-point shooters in 4A Jeffco last season shooting 62-for-132 (47 percent) from behind the arc last year.
Miller finished with a team-high 19 points, including five 3-pointers in the loss.
“I thought we did some good stuff,” Dowd said. “We just couldn’t cover them. If you can’t play defense it’s going to be hard. We’ve got to play better defense.”
Wheat Ridge is scheduled to have its home opener Friday against Pomona.
“That is what the first game is going to give you. Sometimes you look good but you aren’t a good team. Sometimes you look bad and you’ll be a good team,” Dowd said. “Hopefully it is the latter. I’m optimist. We’ve got some good kids. We just have to find out what we are good at.”
Wheat Ridge senior Scott Kingman (20) and Lakewood senior John Rugh (13) jump on the opening tip Wednesday night at Lakewood High School. The Tigers took a 65-45 victory on their home court. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)