Winning is just a little bit easier when you outrebound your opponent 10 to 3 on the offensive boards, a fact the ThunderRidge Grizzlies proved on Friday. They came out on top against Arapahoe by a score of 52-44. Given ThunderRidge's advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked eighth, while Arapahoe is ranked 83rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
ThunderRidge was led to victory by Tommy Wight and Andrew Crawford. Wight scored 14 points along with eight rebounds, while Crawford scored 18 points along with five assists and three steals. The match was Wight's fourth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Ryan Doyle, who scored seven points.
Arapahoe lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Miles McMonigle, who scored 14 points along with five rebounds and three steals. McMonigle scored a full 31.8% of Arapahoe's points, the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Joel Nichols was another key contributor, scoring six points.
The win makes it two in a row for ThunderRidge and bumps their season record up to 5-2. As for Arapahoe, they now have a losing record at 1-2.
ThunderRidge won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Valor Christian at 3:00 p.m. on December 9th. Valor Christian is currently enjoying a perfect season and no doubt want to keep things rolling. As for Arapahoe, they will head out on the road to face off against Chaparral at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday.
