ThunderRidge junior Austin Mueller (14) and Columbine freshman Jaylen Harden (40) battle for a rebound Monday night in the non-league game in Highlands Ranch. (Dennis Pleuss)
HIGHLANDS RANCH — ThunderRidge wasn’t in the holiday giving mood Monday night during a non-league contest against Columbine.
The Grizzlies, ranked No. 2 in the Class 5A boys basketball CHSAANow.com poll, limited the Rebels to just nine field goals the entire game. The defensive effort kept ThunderRidge (5-0 overall) undefeated on the season with a 62-34 victory.
“We scouted (Columbine) so we were better prepared for what they do,” ThunderRidge coach Joe Ortiz said. “Elias Tiedgen is a great one-on-one defensive player. He has guarded everyone’s best player for us, and then we’ve got (Zach Pirog) Pirog at 6-foot-10. So we have two great defensive pieces.”
For the majority of the game, Tiedgen shut down Columbine senior Keaton Matthies. The Rebels’ leading scorer eventually finished with a team-high 11 points, but seven of those points came in the fourth quarter when ThunderRidge had the game well in hand.
ThunderRidge senior Jeff Harhigh (2) snags a rebound during the first half Monday night against Columbine. (Dennis Pleuss)
“We played great defense as a team,” Pirog said. “We made them move the ball around. They like to drive and we took away their penetration.”
Columbine didn’t sink its first field goal until there was 2:23 left in the second quarter. Senior Tucker Holden ended the drought and finished with 10 points.
An offensive bright spot for the Rebels (4-2) was their free-throw shooting. Columbine finished 15-of-16 from the line, but it wasn’t enough to pull off the upset.
“A rough night offensively and I give all the credit to (ThunderRidge’s) defense,” Columbine coach Clay Thielking said. “They made things hard and they had us very well scouted. It snowballed on us.”
Another problem the Rebels faced with ThunderRidge junior Troy Brady. The 5-foot-9 guard led the Grizzlies in scoring with 15 points off the bench. All of Brady’s points came on five 3-pointers in the first three quarters.
“They’ve got to shoot fearless and Troy can definitely shoot like that. We see that everyday. It’s not a surprise to us,” Ortiz said. “The nice thing is we have depth in our shooters. Our best shooter might be coming off the bench.”
Brady gave the Grizzlies a much-needed offensive lift midway through the third quarter when the Rebels were threatening to cut ThunderRidge’s lead to single digits. The junior hit back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of 30 seconds to push the Grizzlies’ lead to 36-19 with 3:33 left in the third quarter.
“That’s a great weapon coming off the bench,” Thielking said. “We knew he (Brady) could shoot it. We just lost him and he burned us.”
Pirog finished right around his average with 14 points. Junior Austin Mueller contributed eight points off the bench as nine different Grizzlies found their way to the scoring column.
Columbine senior Tucker Holden (5) tries to find some way around ThunderRidge senior Zach Pirog during the first half Monday night. The Rebels were limited to just nine field goals as the Grizzlies took a 62-34 victory. (Dennis Pleuss)
ThunderRidge heads to the Foothill Holiday Classic in Nevada from Dec. 19-22. The Grizzlies return to Colorado to face defending 5A state champion Denver East on Jan. 3 at Manual High School’s Thunderdome.
“It’s definitely important,” Pirog said of heading to the out-of-state tournament. “We need to go there and play our best. We definitely want to keep our undefeated record. We will definitely be playing some tough teams.”
Columbine had taken on an ambitious non-league schedule facing the top two teams currently ranked in the 5A boys basketball CHSAANow.com rankings. The Rebels suffered a 34-point loss to No. 1 Regis Jesuit during the opening week of the season.
The Rebels rebounded with three wins over three days last week to claim the Columbine Classic Tournament before taking the 28-point loss Monday night to ThunderRidge.
“It will help a lot,” Thielking said of playing Regis and ThunderRidge early in the season. “This is why you schedule the best teams in the state, to see where you are at and learn. There is no reason for us to panic. We did a lot of good things as well.”
Columbine closes out its schedule before the winter break with a road game Friday at Liberty in Colorado Springs. The Rebels square off against Standley Lake at 3 p.m. Saturday at Pepsi Center in Denver.
ThunderRidge junior Clay Verk (15) drives on Columbine junior J.T. Gentry (34) and senior Dan DeGraaf (4) during the second half Monday night at ThunderRidge High School. The No. 2 ranked Grizzlies took a 62-34 victory against the visiting Rebels. (Dennis Pleuss)