TJ Ends Home Stand at 1-2, Play Two Straight Ranked Opponents

After the rough home opener against D’Evelyn, TJ beat Rock Canyon then lost to Columbine, the Spartans then lost to top ranked Highlands Ranch and beat a ranked Aurora Central team.

Photos by Jeff Coleman

On January 6th, the Spartans won their next home game against Rock Canyon by a dominating score of 82-68, with a huge performance from forward Eric Andres who had a double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) in the game.

“We had a great team meeting on Thursday,” said Head Coach Grant Laman. TJ suffered a bad loss two days before to D’Evelyn in front of the home crowd were the Spartans appeared flat. “We found some great inspiration from Billy Sprague,” said Laman. The visiting Sprague was a perennial team leader on the basketball team, graduated in 2010, and now attends the School of Mines. TJ beat down Rock Canyon on the boards, out-rebounding them by a behemoth total of 27. Forward Trey Andres was a big factor for the Spartans hitting three of four, three-pointers, all at times in the game when the Spartans needed it most.

TJ also found great games from their bench, like guard Amari Williams who had three points and six assists. TJ’s crowd was a key factor in the game, and seemed to get into the heads of the Rock Canyon players, who became more and more frustrated as each offensive possession came up empty for them. The highest point total from Rock Canyon was by guard Austin Noyles who had 15 points, and really was an outlier compared to rest of his team.

TJ then had to play Columbine on Saturday, and had a rough game losing by a large margin of 74-52, and TJ could produce little to no offense in the game.

The Spartans got a good game from guard Jordan Roland who had 14 points, but was slow in the front court where the starters only combined for 15 points. Forward for the Columbine Rebels Jonathan Snow had the clear height advantage over TJ at 6’7″, and scored 23 points on the Spartans. Laman wouldn’t have any excuses for the team though, saying, “They are a big team, but so are we.”

TJ never hit double digits in the first two quarters, only scoring eight and nine respectively. Another rough point of the Spartans game was shooting beyond the arch. They had only five makes in 21 attempts, and those misses brought up empty offensive possessions.  With TJ unable to find its stroke and not produce a lot of offense, the Rebels had their way inside and scored on high percentage shots.

On Tuesday, January 10th TJ played the top ranked team in 5A in Highlands Ranch and lost 61-53.

The Spartans were hit hard in the second quarter, scoring only two points, and went into the half with only 27 points compared to Highlands Ranch’s 31. Other than that abysmal second quarter, the Spartans scored fairly consistently, and stayed in the game most of the way.

In the end, what really hurt the TJ Hoop Squad was the missed three-pointers. The Spartans only made five three-pointers in 24 attempts, a lowly 20% from beyond the arc.

TJ rebounded well and beat a ranked Aurora Central Trojans team on January 12th by a score of 66-61 with a great effort from Treyvon Andres with 19 points and four three-pointers.

Aurora Central has a great shooting guard in Carlton Hurst, who is averaging 22 points per game this year, and put up 28 against the Spartans. Hurst got 10 of those points from free throws that he earned by driving against this Spartan team. TJ remained persistent though, getting a basket when it was needed most. Going into the half, the score was tied at 33 and TJ knew that they could ride the momentum of the crowd to a win.

Coming out at the half, TJ played a stingy defense and allowed only nine points in the third quarter and scored 13 points. Aurora Central had to resort to intentional fouls at the end of the game to try and stay in it, but TJ guard Antonio Clark would get the ball when fouled, and make his free throws.

The Spartans had a scare at the end of the game when Eric Andres went up for a layup and hurt his leg on the way down. The entire Spartan family collectively held its breath as Andres was helped off the court. Andres should be fine, and will start against Cherokee Trail.

“We have good confidence (going into playing Cherokee Trail). We’ll see where it’s at afterwards,” said Laman.