AURORA | The outside shooting prowess of Team East overcame the interior dominance of Team West Saturday afternoon in the A-Town All-Star boys basketball game at Eaglecrest High School.
While Team West owned the advantage in monster dunks — plus an array of scoring methods from Smoky Hill senior star Rickey Mitchell — Team East knocked down 17 3-pointers in all and scored 75 points to come away with a 131-112 victory.
After a see-saw opening half in the contest that brought together 19 of the top talents from across Aurora from the recently completed season, the game was tied early in the 2nd half, but coach Brandon Brown’s Team East found the range
Seven players from Team East had at least one 3-pointer and two of them came from Gateway junior Maximus Matthews, who finished atop the scoring ledger for his squad with 20 points, which was one more than Regis Jesuit junior Damarius Taylor.
Rangeview junior Mareon Chapman knocked down four 3-pointers and finished with 18, while Regis Jesuit senior TaRea Fulcher and Vista PEAK senior Gabe Britton added 15 apiece and Aurora Central junior Christopher Perkins and Eaglecrest senior Joshua Ray each finished with 14 points.
Mitchell — who finished second in Class 6A in scoring during the regular season — cruised to game-high honors with 30 points, which came in a variety of ways. He had two of Team West’s six 3-pointers, but also had an array of dunks, including two that came when he passed the ball between his legs and off the backboard to himself.
Joining Mitchell in double figures for coach Marcus Shelton’s Team West were Vista PEAK junior Alante Monroe-Elazier with 21, Grandview senior UK Onyenwere with 15 and Smoky Hill freshman Kai McGrew with 14.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2023 A-TOWN ALL-STAR BOYS BASKETBALL GAME
Team East 131, Team East 112
Score by halves:
Team West 55 57 — 112
Team East 56 75 — 131
TEAM WEST (112)
Royce Edwards (Rangeview) 2 0-0 4, Rickey Mitchell (Smoky Hill) 14 0-0 30, Colin Bilotta (Grandview) 2 0-0 5, DeMarco Duncan (Rangeview) 6 0-0 12, Kai McGrew (Smoky Hill) 7 0-0 14, Jesse Frimpong (Hinkley) 3 0-0 7, Josh Arce (Gateway) 2 0-0 4, Alante Monroe-Elazier (Vista PEAK Prep) 10 0-0 21, UK Onyenwere (Grandview) 7 0-0 15. Totals 53 0-0 112
TEAM EAST (131)
TaRea Fulcher (Regis Jesuit) 6 0-0 15, Joe Dorais (Regis Jesuit) 1 0-0 3, Damarius Taylor (Regis Jesuit) 8 0-0 19, Joshua Ray (Eaglecrest) 7 0-0 14, Keean Lloyd (Cherokee Trail) 1 0-0 2, Mareon Chapman (Rangeview) 7 0-0 18, Christopher Perkins (Aurora Central) 7 0-0 14, Hamza Mursal (Overland) 4 0-0 11, Gabe Britton (Vista PEAK Prep) 7 0-0 15, Maximus Matthews (Gateway) 9 0-0 20. Totals 57 0-0 131
3-point field goals — Team West (6): Rickey Mitchell 2, Colin Bilotta, Jesse Frimpong, Alante Monroe-Elazier, UK Onyenwere. Team East (17): Mareon Chapman 4, TaRea Fulcher 3, Hamza Mursal 3, Damarius Taylor 3, Maximus Matthews 2, Gabe Britton, Joe Dorais