LITTLETON | Cherokee Trail got off to an unselfish start to the new season, racing to a 69-40 victory over Grand Junction Wednesday in the opening round of the ThunderRidge-Heritage Tip-Off Classic.
The Cougars shared the basketball all game long and forced the Tigers into handfuls of turnovers, built a 16-point lead by halftime and continued to extend it until the final buzzer, which marked the largest margin for coach Morgan Gregory’s team.
Senior Roderick Bernstine finished with a game-high 19 points — including a variety of fast-break dunks – while RJ Perry had 11, Kennedy Littleton 10 and Solomon Yon and Ronnie Barfield eight each for Cherokee Trail, which moves on to play Pueblo East at 7 p.m. Friday in the tournament semifinals.
Pueblo East raced past Heritage 61-37.
The other Aurora team in the eight-team tournament field — Gateway — suffered an 80-18 loss to Chaparral, the defending Class 5A state champion.
The Olys (0-4) meet Rocky Mountain in a consolation semifinal game at 5:30 p.m. Friday at ThunderRidge High School.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
THUNDERRIDGE-HERITAGE TIP-OFF CLASSIC
ThunderRidge 74, Rocky Mountain 46
Chaparral 80, Gateway 18
Pueblo East 61, Heritage 37
Cherokee Trail 69, Grand Junction 40
CHEROKEE TRAIL 69, GRAND JUNCTION 40
Score by quarters:
Grand Junction 13 8 9 10 — 40
Cherokee Trail 21 16 19 13 — 69
GRAND JUNCTION (40)
Greg Eccher 0 0-0 0, Kason Clutter 0 0-0 0, Zack Kiel 1 0-0 3, Broderick Robinson 5 1-3 12, D.J. Wells 5 3-4 13, Henry Carmichael 1 2-2 4, Kyler Rose 3 2-6 8, Ridge Droskin 0 0-0 0, Lieson Crow 0 0-0 0, Ben Volkmann 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 8-15 40.
CHEROKEE TRAIL (69)
RJ Perry 5 0-0 0 11, Solomon Yon 4 0-0 8, Tyler Larkin 2 0-0 4, Kennedy Littleton 4 2-2 10, Roderick Bernstine 9 1-1 19, Phil Mars 0 0-0 0, David Thornton 2 1-4 5, Izaiah Lottie 1 0-0 2, Ronnie Barfield 4 0-0 8, Josh Hulbert 0 0-0 0. Totals 31 4-7 69.
3-point field goals — Grand Junction (2): Zack Kiel, Broderick Robinson; Cherokee Trail: RJ Perry. Total fouls — Grand Junction 7, Cherokee Trail 8. Fouled out — None. Technical fouls — None.
