(Stephen Priest/CHSAANow.com)
AURORA — Being a defending, Class 5A state champion can be exhausting. Overland, the No. 3 ranked team in the state, can attest to it.
Night-in and night-out, they get each team’s best effort and understandably so. Without question, they have the proverbial “target” on their backs.
Going on the road to play an Centennial League opponent is never an easy task, in any sport; yet Overland handled it with such admirable poise and tenacity, as they squeaked out a 63-55 win over No. 10 Cherokee Trail.
The game had a hesitant beginning in the first quarter of play, with each team seemingly trying to figure each other out, but unable to capture any offensive rhythm. No player scored more than four points, and the game went into the second quarter eager to see some sort of offensive output.
Overland did just that.
That quarter was dominated by Overland, thanks to 6-foot-10 senior, De’Ron Davis. Davis opened the floodgates as he alone accounted for close to half of his team’s second quarter points.
Yet Davis did most of his damage on the defensive end, as his four rebounds and two blocks in the quarter helped limit the Cougars to only 10 total points in the period, helping Overland go into halftime up 32-23.
“With a guy like him, ‘intimidating’ isn’t the word, but it changes the game when there is someone that size at the rim,” Cherokee Trail head coach Morgan Gregory said. “So our guys in the first half, I thought were too hesitant to get in there and we weren’t attacking in transition, where we can have some success against them. When their defense is set and he’s just sitting there in the paint, there real tough to score on”
In the third quarter, the Cougars came out with an urgency and intensity, as they were able to get into transition off of an extended trap-zone scheme defensively.
As a result, momentum suddenly shifted completely in favor of Cherokee Trail late in the quarter as on a broken play offensively, leading scorer senior David Thorton came flying in from the perimeter for a one-handed putback dunk over two Trailblazer defenders, cutting the Overland lead to one as the Cougar crowd erupted.
Thorton also received much needed contributions in the quarter from fellow junior teammates Jaizec Lottie and Ian Kelly.
Overland was able to stop the bleeding a little bit with clutch buckets of their own, one of those coming from Sr. Padiet Wang, as he weaved through the Cherokee Trail 2-3 zone for an acrobatic layup.
“We didn’t rebound as well and we gave up second chance opportunities,” Overland head coach Danny Fisher said. “They’re really talented and skilled everywhere, so they’re gonna make a run at you.”
The fourth quarter was a stark contrast from the first, as both teams traded punches like two heavyweight fighters tossing haymaker after haymaker. After knocking down two free throws to begin the fourth, Cherokee Trail exploded and eventually took a 47-46 lead, its first lead since the opening minutes, with six minutes left in regulation.
At this point coach Fisher decided to put the game in the very large hands of his star player and Division I-bound prospect. Each time down after Cherokee Trail took the lead, the Trailblazers were feeding and sometimes force feeding the ball into Davis on the blocks and he responded with dunks and drawing fouls.
The slow-motion pace stymied all momentum the Cougars had, ultimately, leading to Overland regaining control of the game with a minute left to play. Ronnie Barfield tried to inject life back into Cherokee Trail with a timely three from the corner, cutting the deficit to four at 59-55, but Overland’s poise was the prevailing factor down the stretch.
Reggie Gibson cashed in three of four free throws to put the game out of reach, while Davis provided the dagger with two free throws of his own within the final 15 seconds. The defending state champs held on to earn a 63-55 victory.
“You know ever since our staff and this 2016 class has been here, Cherokee Trail has been a knockout-dragout game,” Fisher said. “We’ve had a five overtime game, so they knew what to expect coming in here. One thing we talked about was valuing possession and making tough plays and that’s what we did here.”
Nevertheless, to repeat as 5A champions, Fisher knows his team has a little more work to do.
“Closing out games (needs to be) a little bit better,” he said. “We have six seniors we lean on and they’re starting to get their rhythm. Closing out games, taking care of the ball, just trying to understand what we’re trying to accomplish on every possession at the end of games.”