Even though the Air Academy Kadets scored an imposing 62 points on Tuesday, the Douglas County Huskies still came out on top. Douglas County snuck past Air Academy with a 67-62 win. Given Douglas County's advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 45th, while Air Academy is ranked 168th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Douglas County's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Vaughn Baldwin, who scored 20 points. Gavin Dale was another key contributor, scoring 18 points along with seven assists.
Despite the loss, Air Academy still got an impressive performance from Noah Hellem, who scored 28 points along with seven rebounds. The contest was Hellem's seventh in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Max Howery, who scored 15 points along with five assists.
Even though they lost, Air Academy were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
The win makes it two in a row for Douglas County and bumps their season record up to 5-2. As for Air Academy, they have fallen quite a ways from their 25-3 record last season and are now at 2-5.
Douglas County will be home for the holidays to greet Poudre at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. As for Air Academy, they will head out on the road to face off against Liberty at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Liberty focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 15 on Monday.
