The Gateway Olympians were the 48-36 winner over the Thornton Trojans when they last played one another back in February, but their luck changed this time around. Gateway fell just short of Thornton by a score of 77-74. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Hayden Von Boeckman and Oriel Bailey certainly did their best on Friday to try and avoid the loss. Von Boeckman scored 25 points along with 5 rebounds and 5 steals, while Bailey 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.
Clayton Jones had a dynamite game for Thornton, scoring 38 points along with 9 rebounds. That makes it two consecutive games in which Jones 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.
Gateway's loss dropped their record down to 0-2. As for Thornton, the win got them back to even at 1-1.
Gateway will be staying on the road on Monday to face off against Fairview at 8:00 p.m. on December 4th. As for Thornton, they will take on Northglenn at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. 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).
