Cherry Creek Holiday Classic Tournament: Saturday Recap

The 2019 Cherry Creek Holiday Classic was a great three days of basketball, with the final day taking place last Saturday. Below we will take a look inside the last round of action and how the teams did. The tournament was filled with lots of talent and exciting games, it will be interesting to continue to follow these teams throughout the season to see how their year pans out. Championship Game - Cherry Creek Vs. Fairview (49-46) The championship game on Saturday afternoon had, host Cherry Creek squaring off against a well tested Fairview team that has already seen teams like: Chaparral, Overland, and Eaglecrest early on this season. Fairview would jump out early on Creek, scoring the first nine points of the game forcing Creek to call a timeout. Fairview would lead 21-11 at the end of one, Greysen Carter led the way for the Knights in the first, he was getting to his spots on the floor and scoring with ease, having 14 of his team high 22 points in the first. Both teams would go on to score eight points each in the second, Fairview would enter halftime with a 29-19 lead. Jalen Page, was second on the team in scoring for Fairview with 12 points. The Bruins would lock in defensively coming out of halftime which would end up being the difference in the game in the second half. Creek would go on to hold Fairview to eight points in the third and nine in the fourth as their own offense would start to heat up in the second half, scoring 15 points each quarter. Julian Hammond led the Bruins in scoring with 17 points, shooting three of five from long distance. Creek had a nice balance of players step up in the game which included, Sebastian Cole, who would go on to score eight points and five assists and took two more charges in the game which would make four in the last two games. He would also knock down a huge free-throw to give them a 47-46 lead late in the fourth. Thomas Hawley continued his strong play, scoring nine points, knocking down two big threes in the second half for the Bruins. Third Place Game - Lincoln Vs. Thomas Jefferson (62-47) Lincoln jumped out early on TJ Saturday afternoon, leading 20-11 after one. TJ Bamba would score nine of their 20 points in the first, connecting on one three and getting to the rim at will. TJ would not have an answer for Bamba as he would go on to score a game high 33 points, scoring 21 of them in the second half. Ty Foster would add 12 points, scoring seven of them in the fourth. Gabe Hernandez would also score in double figures, adding 11 for Lincoln, making three three-pointers in the game. TJ impressed me this tournament, with a number of different players who can make their impact on the game any given night. The Spartans would have nine different players score in this game, with Darius Hornbuckle leading the way with 14, hitting three of four attempts from long distance. It will be fun to see how these two teams play throughout the year, TJ has the opportunity to surprise some people this year and Lincoln will go as far as Foster and Bamba carry them. Legend Vs. Mountain Vista (65-83) Mountain Vista would win 83-65, in a high scoring first half with Vista leading 38-31. Reece Kelly continued his strong play for Mountain Vista scoring 25 points in the game, shooting six of ten from behind the three-point arc in the game. He would also have eight rebounds in the game. Kelly has now scored double figures in all seven of the games so far this season, 25 marks his season high so far which he has hit three times. He is 24/50 from behind the arc on the season so far, for forty-eight percent. Ben Bowen would add another 26 for Vista, shooting perfect from behind the arc, going three for three and was very effective attacking the rim. Rhys Pulling had his best game of the year so far, scoring 19 points, eight rebounds, and five assists doing a little bit of everything for Vista on the day. Mountain Vista would score 22 points or more in three out of the four quarters, while holding Legend to only one twenty or more point quarter. Cam LeVan and Garrett Siebert led the way for Legend offensively, Cam would finish the game with 19 points, and Garrett would add 14. Charlie Hollenbaugh would also have a nice game for Legend, scoring 16 points, 14 of which came in the second half. Cherokee Trail Vs. Vista Ridge (51-34) Tre Titus led the way for Cherokee Trail in this contest with 16, including two threes. He has now scored double figures in all eight games so far for CT, he is shooting forty-seven percent from three-point range (23/49). Phillip Toledo also had 16, in his best performance of the year so far. He played well all tournament long, with Isaac Tesfaye missing the first two games in the tournament but would play in this one. Phillip would go seven of twelve from the field, including knocking down a three-pointer. Isaac would add eight points and nine rebounds in his return, CT is definitely a different team when he is healthy and playing. Jabez Hasberry was the only player for Vista Ridge to score in double figures, he had 16 points on the day, shooting four of nine from long range. He is now shooting thirty-seven percent on the season from behind on three-point arc (23/63). Trey Fowler had seven points on an off shooting day, only connecting on two of his seven shots. He did record double figures in rebounds with twelve in the game, which makes the seventh game out of nine this season that he has recorded double figures in rebounds. Records going into the break: Cherry Creek (6-2), Fairview (6-3), Lincoln (5-4), Thomas Jefferson (4-4), Mountain Vista (5-2), Legend (6-3), Cherokee Trail (2-6), Vista Ridge (2-7)