DENVER | Larry Bridges didn’t practice well in the week after the winter break, but you wouldn’t have known it Friday night.
The senior forward scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the second half as the Rangeview boys basketball team ran past George Washington 69-57 in a non-league road contest.
Jeremiah Paige added 14 points and Tim Ealy had 12 as Rangeview won its second game out of the winter break and improved to 9-2 overall, tying Overland — a 59-57 loser to Cherokee Trail — for the most wins among Aurora clubs.
“I just cut to the basket like coach told me and it happened a lot in the game,” said Bridges, who had nine points in each of the final two quarters to help the Raiders pull away from the pesky Patriots (8-5).
“I had two bad practices this week, but I kept my head up and listened to my coaching and I did fine,” he added.
George Washington bomber Jevon Taylor — second in Class 5A in made 3-pointers coming into the game — hit four of his team’s eight triples on the evening, but the Patriots turned the ball over frequently and couldn’t defend the slashing of Bridges and the patient Paige as the game wore on.
Taylor finished with a team-high 21 points, while Michael Hudgens added 17 and Jordon Davis seven for George Washington.
It looked like a close contest was in store after a back-and-forth first half, with Taylor hitting a pair of 3-pointers despite the best efforts of Rangeview defensive ace Dezant Burks and the Patriots doing good work on the boards.
Burks made two free throws with 0.3 seconds left in the first half to give the Raiders a 29-26 lead, which they built on quickly in the third quarter six scoring the first six points.
An Ealy layup followed by a steal and basket by Larry Bridges upped Rangeview’s advantage to seven points, then Paige wowed the crowd with an alley-oop dunk on a pass from Burks to make it 35-26.
Bridges scored layups on three consecutive trips — including a 3-point play — to push the lead into double figures.
The Patriots threatened a bit in the fourth quarter with Taylor knocking down two 3-pointers — the last to make it a 63-53 game with 2:10 left — but the Raiders got a big tip-in from Ealy and a putback from Burks in the final minute to seal the win.
Coach Shawn Palmer was pleased with the victory in another strong non-conference challenge, which the Raiders need with a mostly underwhelming East Metro Athletic Conference schedule coming soon.
“Absolutely this was a good win, they’ve had a lot of success,” said Palmer, whose team has another quality non-leaguer against Legend team on Jan. 15 before getting into EMAC play.
“We have to play these non-league games, so it’s good to get some victories,” he added.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at [email protected] or 303-750-7555
RANGEVIEW 69, GEORGE WASHINGTON 57
Score by quarters:
Rangeview 13 16 21 19 — 69
Geo. Washington 9 17 10 21 — 57
RANGEVIEW (69)
Trey Bridges 2 3-4 7, Larry Bridges 9 4-5 22, Dezant Burks 3 2-3 9, Tim Ealy 5 2-2 12, Jeremiah Paige 4 6-8 14, Cristian Garcia 1 0-2 3, Tarren Storey-Way 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 17-24 69.
GEORGE WASHINGTON (57)
Michael Hudgens 6 3-3 17, Jordon Davis 3 0-0 7, Mann Preston 1 0-0 2, Elijah Hewlett 0 1-2 1, Jevon Taylor 6 5-6 21, Jordan Ehr 0 2-2 2, Mohamed Tagir 1 0-0 3, Cedric Smith 2 0-0 4, Nick Parker 0 0-0 0, Brendan Connors-Sullivan 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 11-13 57.
3-point field goals — Rangeview (2): Dezant Burks, Cristian Garcia; Geo. Washington (8): Jevon Taylor 4, Michael Hudgens 2, Jordon Davis, Mohamed Tagir. Total fouls — Rangeview 9, George Washington 14. Fouled out — None. Technical fouls — None.
