Even though the Thornton Trojans have not done well against the Gateway Olympians recently (they were 1-8 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. Thornton skirted past Gateway 77-74. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Clayton Jones had an outrageously good game as he scored 38 points along with 9 rebounds. That makes it two consecutive games in which he has scored at least 25% of Thornton's points. Adrian Armendariz was another key contributor, scoring 17 points along with 7 rebounds and 5 steals.
Defeat or not, Gateway got some senior leadership from Hayden Von Boeckman who scored 25 points along with 5 rebounds and 5 steals and Oriel Bailey who scored 18 points along with 9 rebounds. Von Boeckman scored a full 33.8% of Gateway's points, the second time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Kaiemion Ashley, who scored 9 points.
The win got Thornton back to even at 1-1. As for Gateway, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 0-2.
Thornton is on the road again on Saturday and play against Northglenn at 10:30 a.m. on December 2nd. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Colorado (Northglenn is ranked 88th, while Thornton is ranked 105th). As for Gateway, they will head out on the road to face off against Fairview at 8:00 p.m. on Monday.
