Fremont throttles Denver East

WEST VALLEY CITY — Apparently Utah's best is significantly better than Colorado's best.

Speared on by a stifling defensive effort that forced Denver East into 15 first-half turnovers, Utah's top-ranked Fremont blasted Colorado's defending 5A state champs 67-57 at the Smith's Ragu Classic at the E Center.

"We wanted to go out and prove something," said Fremont's Ryan Sanchez, who finished with 10 points. "That we're a good team and can play with anybody."

It's safe to say Denver East got the message.

Even though the Angels lost two key starters off of last year's 25-0 team, they're still an extremely talented team, including Texas Tech signee Dazzmond Thornton. On Friday, however, they looked like a run-of-the-mill squad that would struggle to make the playoffs competing in Utah's Region 1.

Denver East had as many points — 15 — as it did turnovers in the first half after shooting a whopping 20 percent from the field.

"We were just trying to get in the passing lanes," said Fremont coach Bernie Graziano.

The Silver Wolves led 39-15 at the half and then 48-28 at the end of the third quarter.

Denver East managed to make the outcome look respectable as starting forward Pierre Curtis scored 18 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter playing primarily against Fremont's junior varsity team.

As far as Graziano and his starting five were concerned, that was just fine.

"They help us in practice, so we tried get them some time on the court," said Sanchez about his JV team.

Leading by 20 entering the fourth quarter, Graziano challenged his team to play inspired basketball early in the quarter so the junior varsity players could experience what all the fuss about Denver East was all about.

The Wolves' starting five did just that by scoring on five of their first six possessions, opening Graziano's confidence hatch enough to sub out his starters.

Despite the blowout victory, Graziano told his team to keep things in perspective. Fremont will surely face better competition in Utah than Denver East provided Friday — especially against patient teams.

Entering the game, Fremont expected much of athletic Angels' offense to be predicated on dribble penetration. Aggressive perimeter defense by Austin Beus, Austin Raught and Trevor Higley pretty much kept the Angels in check.

Fremont's inside play also bottled up the 6-foot-8 Thornton, as he only managed to finish with nine points.

Higley ended up leading Fremont with 17 points, while Sanchez and Hancock chipped in with 10 apiece.

Higley was the third different leading scorer for Fremont in three games, a big reason the Silver Wolves will be tough to beat all year.

"One important thing for me is we have some decent balance," said Graziano.

Fremont returns to action next week with games against Bonneville and Olympus.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com