ARVADA — Columbine junior Jeff Potts picked an ideal time to drain his first 3-pointer during a varsity boys basketball game.
Potts, mainly a junior varsity player, drained a 3-pointer from the corner with 40 seconds remaining Wednesday night to tie it up 66-66 against Ralston Valley on the Mustangs’ home court.
Columbine junior Luke O’Brien (0) elevates for a shot over Ralston Valley juniors Caleb Rillos, left, and Caden Gigstad (2). O’Brien had a game-high 26 points in the Rebels’ victory. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“I knew I was a little anxious,” Potts said of his first 3-pointer earlier in the fourth quarter that well over the rim from the corner. “After that I calmed down and made that adjustment on that second shot.”
The Rebels — No. 10 in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A boys basketball rankings — managed to get a trio of defensive stops after the 3-pointer by Potts. Junior Luke O’Brien went 3-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final eight seconds to pull off an improbable 69-66 victory for Columbine (12-5, 3-0 in Class 5A Jeffco League).
“I don’t know if we win this game three weeks ago,” Columbine coach Clay Thielking said. “This team is still growing. They showed a lot of toughness tonight and I’m proud of them.”
Columbine outscored Ralston Valley 11-1 in the final two minutes to win its sixth straight game and stay undefeated in conference play.
“No doubt,” O’Brien said after the come-from-behind win after trailing for most of the second half. “I never have doubt about this team. Even if our two bigs (Cody Ramming and Justin Lohrenz) foul out. It’s next man up. Our bench is strong.”
Ralston Valley junior Caden Gigstad, left, works off a screen set by Jordan Stratch (23) in an attempt to lose Columbine senior Logan DeArment. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
O’Brien finished with a game-high 26 points, but even the University of Colorado-commit needed plenty of help to overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half. Senior Logan DeArment made 3-pointers with 2:55 and 1:05 left in the fourth quarter to keep the Rebels’ rally on track.
Potts came off the bench in the fourth quarter after Ramming and Lohrenz fouled out. The Rebels were already shorthanded with sophomore Treyvaughn Williams unavailable.
“It didn’t look good. It didn’t look good,” Thielking admitted. “I thought if we could stay connected a little bit and keep it a two-possession game things could get weird in the last couple of minutes and it did. We obviously needed a lot of things to go our way down the stretch and everything did.”
Ralston Valley (13-5, 2-1) nearly sent the game into overtime with a well-executed final shot with 1.6 seconds left and having to go the length of the court. Junior Caleb Rillos fired a pass to senior Jordan Stratch, who dished it to junior Caden Gigstad for a 3-pointer. Gigstad got the shot off before the buzzer sounded, but the ball rimmed out.
“We played really great as a team,” said Stratch, who finished with 11 points. “We had them. We should have put our foot on their neck and stopped them.”
Ralston Valley junior Luke Carlston (32) splits through Columbine senior Cody Ramming (21) and junior Luke O’Brien during Wednesday night’s 5A Jeffco League thriller. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Rillos had a great game with 21 points while having the task of guarding O’Brien one-on-one for the majority of the game. Gigstad finished with 14 points.
The Mustangs went on a 13-0 run from late in the second quarter until early in the third quarter to grab double-digit lead, but couldn’t close it out. The loss ended an 11-game winning streak for Ralston Valley, the longest winning streak in 5A at the time.
“We’ve got a mindset on the big picture now,” Stratch said of the loss that dropped the Mustangs a game behind Columbine and Arvada West (15-4, 4-0) in the conference standings. “We’ll focus on the next game and get better as a team.”
Ralston Valley is back in action against Pomona (9-9, 1-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday on the Panthers’ home court. The two rivals played in the Ralston Valley Roundup Tournament championship game back on Dec. 14. The Mustangs took a 76-62 victory.
Wednesday was the start of a three road games in four days for the Rebels. Columbine hits the road to face No. 3 Mountain Vista (17-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday in a big non-league game.
“This is a good steeping stone for us,” O’Brien said. “We aren’t done. We still have a lot league games left and Mountain Vista tomorrow. We’ll enjoy tonight and move on.”
The Rebels get back into conference play with a 1 p.m. tipoff at Lakewood on Saturday, Feb. 2.
Ralston Valley junior Walker Brickle (30) tries to dive past Columbine senior Nehemiah Nua (1) during the Class 5A Jeffco League game Wednesday night. The Rebels outscored the Mustangs 11-1 in the final two minutes to rally for a 69-66 road victory. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)