Roughly a week before the basketball season was to begin up in Broomfield, Bayfield head coach Jeff Lehnus wasn't exactly sure what sort of team he'd have out on the court.
But he knew he'd have one.
As the Jefferson Academy Invitational played out-with BHS losing their winter's first game but dominating its second-he definitely appeared to have a pretty eager one.
As CHSAA's top Class 3A boys' basketball teams discovered last season, with the Wolverines shocking several en route to reaching the state championships in Golden, that's a prime aspect which Lehnus and his staff can again develop in 2015-16.
Needing a quick reminder of last year's accomplishments, as well as a manifestation of the level to which he'd like his squad to aspire this year, the boss got both from Parachute Grand Valley last Friday.
The talented Cardinals claimed an 87-69 victory. But not even a week after Bayfield bagged the Class 2A State Football Championship, multiple gridders enjoyed relative ease in quickly switching sports.
Senior guard Taed Heydinger, for example, got GVHS for 15 points and also grabbed six rebounds.
Senior forward Zane Phelps booked 14 with six boards, sophomore guard Hunter Killough had 10 points, and freshman guard Keyon Prior had 10 with three rebounds in an anticipated varsity debut.
Sophomore forward Ryan Phelps registered nine points and collected 11 rebounds as well.
And only in the second quarter did Grand Valley establish control; Bayfield trailed by only two points, 21-19, after the first but found themselves down 45-32 at halftime.
Quarters Three and Four were close like the first, with the Cardinals (18-6, 12-2 Western Slope in '14-15) owning a 42-37 aggregate edge.
But had it not been for the work of Grand Valley's all-league trio, GVHS might have came up short-even against BHS' relatively green-to-the-scene bunch. Grand Valley's statistics showed aptly-named junior Gunner Rigsby (11-of-13 shooting inside the three-point arc, 6-7 FT) and senior John Parker (nine three-pointers) each pouring in 37 points, with senior Tanner Magee chipping in another ten.
Still with plenty of steam after a night's sleep, and led by another 20 Rigsby points, Grand Valley (2-0, 0-0 WSL) downed the event-hosting Jaguars (1-2, 0-0 3A Metro) 59-46 in the Invitational's first-place game on Day 2, while the Wolverines regrouped to rip apart Denver Sheridan 65-34.
Building off another strong opening, BHS increased a 21-11 first-quarter lead to 39-20 through two and then to an overwhelming 58-26 beginning the final eight minutes. Ryan Phelps scored a team-high 12 points and had five rebounds, and junior Brian Mashak posted ten and six.
Killough scored nine points, Zane Phelps (six boards) and freshman Hayden Farmer each had eight, and Prior had six points with three assists (Zane Phelps and Killough each led with four). Senior Zach Kujath snared a team-high eight rebounds, after grabbing six against GVHS.
Third at last season's Invitational en route to a 13-10 overall record and third-place 9-3 mark in the Frontier League, the Rams (0-2, 0-0) got 16 points from senior Daniel Martinez and nine from junior Robert Williams.
'Receiving Votes' in the Dec. 7 CHSAANow.com poll-in which Grand Valley gained inclusion at #8-Bayfield (1-1, 0-0 Intermountain) will travel to this weekend's Buena Vista Invitational and first see action at 4 p.m. today against Lafayette Peak to Peak (2-2, 0-0 Metro).
A 4 p.m. tip against the host Demons follows tomorrow inside the Dorothea Wille P.E. Complex.
IML STRONG: As last season's amazing 28-seed in the state tournament's initial 32-team bracket, Bayfield would go on to eliminate Jefferson Academy on the consolation side of the eight-team state championships' ladder en route to ultimately finishing a surprising sixth, with an unassuming 14-12 overall record. What most people wouldn't have remembered was that Grand Valley and Sheridan also made it into the tournament last season, and that both were also ousted by Intermountain League opposition. As the 17-seed, SHS succumbed to #16 Pagosa Springs in the first round, while #10 GVHS fell to #7 Alamosa in the Sweet 16.
