The End is Just the Beginning

The Spartan Basketball team met the close of their season on Saturday, February 26th losing in the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Photo by Mia Nogueira

After an up and down regular season with some dominating wins and devastating losses, The Spartans entered the 2011 4A playoffs with the 13th overall seed. The Spartans won the first game against #20 Glenwood Springs 50-33, but lost the next day to #4 Pueblo West in overtime 48-42.

In the Glenwood Springs game, the Spartans started off their playoff run at a fast pace and never looked back. Glenwood Springs came into the game with a better regular season record than the Spartans, and going nearly undefeated in their conference with an 11-1 conference record. However, because of TJ’s difficult schedule, the Spartans were considered the home team with the higher playoff seed in the matchup.  The game started out nearly neck and neck as the scoring went back and forth between the Spartans’ and the Demons’ offenses.  At halftime, Glenwood Springs led on the scoreboard by just a hair with a score of 22-21. In the second half, the Spartans changed up the game plan and clearly took control from the second half whistle until the end. The Spartans’ press defense forced the Demons into many turnovers that led to nearly 30 points for the Spartans in the second half. In the end, the Spartans were onto the next round with a winning score of 50-33.

In the next round, the Spartans had to come face to face with the top seed in the Ron Shavlik division in #4 Pueblo West. The Cyclones came into the game with an impressive 22-3 overall record and went undefeated in their division. The Spartans went up early against Pueblo West leading by 10 points at halftime and dominated the defensive side of the ball, holding Pueblo’s high-powered offense to only 15 points in the first half with a suffocating press defense. The Spartans led in scoring for the first three quarters and seemed to be in the driver’s seat onto the next round of the playoffs. However, with the beginning of the fourth quarter came a monumental change in the pace of the game and the Spartans seemed to falter at the end. “ We just seemed to run out of gas. We played three quarters of really great basketball, and just couldn’t close out the game,” said Head Coach Grant Laman.

As the final seconds ticked away and the score was dead even, the ball was in the hands of Senior Jordan Roland who put up a Hail Mary shot, but was unable to repeat the glory from the Chaparrel game during the season, and couldn’t get the ball to sink. Since the score was deadlocked as the final buzzer rang, the game had to be decided in extra time. At the end of the game, the Spartans had three players (Jordan Roland, Ian Melnicoe, and Sir Michael Boston) who fouled out in the last few minutes of regular time and beginning of OT, which put them in a tough spot in overtime. The Spartans had lost their momentum and the Cyclones just kept building off of their enormous crowd’s support to rise above the Spartans. At the end of the game, and the season, the Spartans went out with a fight, but lost to Pueblo West with an OT final score of 48-42.

With the end of the season, comes the end of the Seniors’ tenure as Spartan Basketball players. “I’ve really enjoyed my time as a player here at TJ. It’s been great and I’m glad I got to go out on a good playoff note in a hard fought and close game,” said Senior Captain Ian Melnicoe.

Another Senior, Wesley Price, says this about the end of the season: “Personally it was sad for me to have to sit from the sideline with my injury and miss the end of the season; but, overall, my time on the team has been great and I don’t regret a minute of it.”

Even though the seniors’ time with TJ basketball is over, the team has high hopes for next season, and Laman thinks that the success they accomplished this season is only the start to more success for seasons to come. “We [TJ] will miss our Senior leadership, but we have a lot of returning young talent and several of our young guys have developed this season into assets for the team. To say the least, I am very excited for next season,” said  Laman. With returning players such as Eric Andres, Sir Michael Boston, Antonio Clark and Nate Brewer, the Spartans have much to look forward to for years to come.

*Playoffs