Arvada West boys basketball escapes with win over Chatfield

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LITTLETON — e race for the Class 6A Je co League boys basketball title turned into a three-team race.

Valor Christian (14-7, 9-1 in league), Ralston Valley (15-6, 7-3) and Arvada West (15-7, 7-4) had distanced themselves from the rest of the eld with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season. However, things did get a little clearer last week.

Valor — No. 9 in the 6A CHSAANow.com rankings — took a big 82-63 home win Feb. 7 over Ralston Valley to take a 2-game advantage over the Mustangs.

A-West stayed right in the mix with a tight 61-58 road victory against Chat eld on Feb. 7. e Wildcats hung on to the win after Chat eld junior Liam McGuire’s 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have forced overtime was just short.

“It’s good to get out of here with a win playing like we did,” A-West coach Je Parriott said. “I don’t think we were looking ahead to ursday, but they are kids. at might have been in the case. We walked out with a win and focus on ursday.”

A-West had its huge rematch against Valor on Feb. 9 back on the Wildcats’ home court. A-West handed Valor its lone conference lost Jan. 23. A sweep of Valor would give A-West the all important tiebreaker over the Eagles if both nish with the same conference record.

“We’ve got something to play for when it comes to a league championship and something to play for when it comes to seeding when we get to the postseason,” Parriott said. “We will turn it around.”

Valor was the one turning things around Feb. 9. e Eagles dominated A-West to take a 75-46 victory. e Wildcats’ last conference title was back in the 2017-18 season when A-West o cially shared the league title with Columbine. Valor won the 5A league title back in 2020-21 and Ralston Valley captured the conference championship last year going undefeated in 5A Je co League play.

A-Wests then su ered a 61-34 loss to Bear Creek on Feb. 11 that ended any hopes for a conference title.

Before the 2-game losing streak, Nichols led A-West with 21 points, including going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the nal minute against Chat eld. Senior Zion omas scored just 4 points, but was also money in the nal minutes going 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.

Senior Jasper Padia had a quiet rst three quarter that included some early foul trouble, but the Wildcats’ leading scored poured in 7 points in the fourth quarter to nish with 13 points.

Sophomore Jordan Stremel had a big game o the bench with 13 points, including three 3-pointers for A-West.

“ ankfully Jordan gave us that boost o ensively,” Parriott said. “We really needed that after Jasper picked up his second foul and had to set a little bit in that rst half.”

Junior James Hadzic had 8 points, but his biggest contribution in the fourth quarter was taking two defensive charges.

“If those kind of small things don’t happen we don’t win the game,” Nichols said of Stremel’s pair of 3-pointers and Hadzic’s two defensive plays in fourth quarter. “ ose were big by those guys.”

Chat eld (5-15, 1-8) has lost 10-of-11 games, but de ntely had a strong showing against the lWildcats. Senior Shay Rumsey had 21 points for the Chargers. Senior Donovan Doyle came o the bench with 11 points, including two 3-pointers in the nal 22 seconds that cut the Wildcats’ lead to 1-point on both occasions.

“I thought Chat eld outplayed us. I thought they played harder and played smarter than we did,” Parriott said.

Chat eld has the chance to play spoiler in its nal two games. e Chargers are at Valor (Wednesday, Feb. 15) and home against Ralston Valley (Friday, Feb. 17). It isn’t likely that Chat eld will make the 32- team eld for the 6A state tournament. e Chargers were No. 44 in the RPI standings before Tuesday’s games.

A-West closes out the regular season at home versus Columbine (Friday, Feb. 17). e Wildcats were No. 17 in the RPI standings. e top-16 seeds get a home game for the rst round of the 32-team 6A state tournament that begins next week.

Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.