{"id":2455020,"date":"2020-02-25T23:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-boys-basketball-upsets-coal-ridge-in-district-quarterfinals\/"},"modified":"2020-02-25T23:10:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T06:10:00","slug":"aspen-high-boys-basketball-upsets-coal-ridge-in-district-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-high-boys-basketball-upsets-coal-ridge-in-district-quarterfinals\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen High boys basketball upsets Coal Ridge in district quarterfinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.6767317939609\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-321556-385\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-1024x613.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kyle Mills\/Post Independent | Coal Ridge\u2019s Irvin Ortega, Hank DiMarco and Andrew Herrera walk off the court stunned as Aspen celebrates a two-point victory in overtime on Tuesday in New Castle.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Coal Ridge\u2019s Irvin Ortega, Hank DiMarco and Andrew Herrera walk off the court stunned as Aspen celebrates a two-point victory in overtime on Tuesday in New Castle.<\/strong><br \/>Kyle Mills\/Post Independent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-1024x613.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Coal Ridge\u2019s Irvin Ortega, Hank DiMarco and Andrew Herrera walk off the court stunned as Aspen celebrates a two-point victory in overtime on Tuesday in New Castle.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-1-1024x745.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kyle Mills\/Post Independent | Coal Ridge coach Paul Harvey reacts as the Titans turn over the ball late in the overtime period against Aspen Tuesday in New Castle.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Coal Ridge coach Paul Harvey reacts as the Titans turn over the ball late in the overtime period against Aspen Tuesday in New Castle.<\/strong><br \/>Kyle Mills\/Post Independent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-1-1024x745.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Coal Ridge coach Paul Harvey reacts as the Titans turn over the ball late in the overtime period against Aspen Tuesday in New Castle.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-2-664x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kyle Mills\/Post Independent | Coal Ridge\u2019s Austin Gerber looks for an opening to shoot under the defensive pressure from Aspen\u2019s Braden Korpela during fourth quarter action Tuesday.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Coal Ridge\u2019s Austin Gerber looks for an opening to shoot under the defensive pressure from Aspen\u2019s Braden Korpela during fourth quarter action Tuesday.<\/strong><br \/>Kyle Mills\/Post Independent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/3Adistricts-gpi-022620-1-2-664x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Coal Ridge\u2019s Austin Gerber looks for an opening to shoot under the defensive pressure from Aspen\u2019s Braden Korpela during fourth quarter action Tuesday.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-boys-basketball-upsets-coal-ridge-in-district-quarterfinals\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-boys-basketball-upsets-coal-ridge-in-district-quarterfinals\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Sophomore Lucas Lee was far from the game\u2019s leading scorer, but it was his two late baskets that sent the Aspen High School boys basketball team past Coal Ridge on Tuesday in the biggest win for the program in at least six years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe toughest game of basketball I\u2019ve ever seen a group of Aspen boys play in my time,\u201d fourth-year AHS coach Alex Schrempf said. \u201cAll credit goes to these boys. They work so hard. They are being so selfless and trying for each other to make this happen. It\u2019s really cool to see. Very proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Seeded No. 7 in the Class 3A Western Slope League district tournament, Aspen pulled off a 61-59 overtime win over No. 2 Coal Ridge in New Castle that catapults them into Friday\u2019s semifinal round. The win also dramatically increased the Skiers\u2019 chances of making regional play in the state tournament, a place they haven\u2019t been since the 2013-14 season under former coach Steve Ketchum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen trailed by as much as six points in the fourth quarter but rallied to tie the game at 50-all with 51 seconds to play on a free throw by sophomore Braden Korpela. The Titans answered shortly after when senior Austin Gerber, the team\u2019s leading scorer and 3-point specialist, drained a trey to make it 53-50 with about 30 seconds to go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lee found the answer, making his own 3-pointer in the waning seconds to send the game to overtime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe chipped away: bucket, bucket, bucket and stop, stop, stop. Our big thing was for our guys to learn how to deal with adversity, overcome adversity and stay together,\u201d Schrempf said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That last 3-pointer was not intended for Lee, but he made the most of the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe tried to setup for a three, so we settled into our motion. Ball swings over to Lucas on the wing and I\u2019m crouched down right behind him,\u201d Schrempf said. \u201cHe\u2019s not even looking to shoot, he\u2019s looking to pass it back to our point guard, but the guy guarding him is sagging off so far because he\u2019s not looking to shoot, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Shoot it. Shoot it.\u2019 And he looks up at the rim, squares up, and just puts it up and it toilet bowls in. That thing took three seconds to go from the rim and through the net.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The finish to overtime was just as wild, albeit much sloppier. Down a point with 43 second to play, AHS had the ball after a sequence of back-to-back steals followed by a Coal Ridge travel that kept the Skiers breathing. This time Aspen ran a play made for Lee, although he missed his shot only to grab his own rebound and make the put-back to give AHS the 60-59 lead with 20 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cHe goes up on the first one and it rims off, but he had such a great second bounce that he got up and grabbed the board, went up again and same thing, it stopped on the top of the rim and rolled in two seconds later,\u201d Schrempf said. \u201cThat was such a big rebound by him. He looked at me and said, \u2018I\u2019m padding my stats. I wanted another rebound.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Korpela had a chance to extend the lead after a bad Coal Ridge possession, but missed two free throws and Titan junior Hank DiMarco grabbed the rebound and was fouled. With a chance to tie or take the lead at the other end with 10 seconds to go, DiMarco also missed both his free throw attempts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Coal Ridge junior Andrew Herrera got the offensive rebound, but missed the put-back and Aspen senior Jon Haisfield was soon headed to the free-throw line himself with 4.5 seconds to go. He made 1 of 2 from the stripe to make it 61-59 and a Coal Ridge turnover with less than a second to go essentially iced it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Not wanting the drama to end, AHS managed to inbound the ball straight back out of bounds without anyone touching it, so the Titans got the ball under their own basket with four-tenths of a second to play but couldn\u2019t make anything of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThey try and lob and thankfully it didn\u2019t connect and the buzzer goes off,\u201d Schrempf said. \u201cThe very end of it was a nail-biter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Coal Ridge led 14-13 after a quarter but a big second quarter gave AHS a 32-29 halftime lead. The Titans led 43-40 after three quarters and looked to be pulling away in the fourth before Aspen\u2019s late rally that forced overtime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The teams had played once this season on Feb. 14, Coal Ridge winning 66-58 in New Castle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Unofficially, Gerber led all players with 25 points. He was 5-of-5 from the 3-point line. Korpela led AHS with 21 points, while freshman Taylor Akin had 15 points. Haisfield chipped in 11 points, most coming during the second and third quarters, while Lee finished with nine points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter or overtime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen (13-8 overall) wasn\u2019t the only team to pull off an upset Tuesday, as No. 6 Roaring Fork knocked off No. 3 Grand Valley, 38-36, and will face the Skiers in Friday afternoon\u2019s district semifinal game in Grand Junction. Game time is tentatively set for 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Rams (6-14) beat Aspen 33-24 on Feb. 1, the first of four straight losses for the then-injury riddled Skiers. AHS hasn\u2019t lost since losing to Coal Ridge in their first meeting, the fourth game in that slide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis is all these boys\u2019 first time in a genuine postseason like this. Our whole thing is we got to enjoy this process,\u201d Schrempf said. \u201cI\u2019m so excited they have a chance to experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In the other quarterfinal games Tuesday, No. 1 Gunnison rolled over No. 9 Olathe, 76-51, and will face No. 5 Delta in the other semifinal. The Panthers won 72-55 over No. 4 Moffat County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The two teams that make Saturday\u2019s district championship game both earn an automatic spot in the 32-team state tournament, while the rest will have to <a href=\"https:\/\/chsaanow.com\/rpi\/boys-basketball\/3a\/\">rely on RPI to get in<\/a>. Coal Ridge (14-6) still has a strong chance to make regional play despite the loss to Aspen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">BASALT GIRLS FALL TO CEDAREDGE<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Basalt High School girls basketball team\u2019s season likely came to an end Tuesday with a 50-31 loss to Cedaredge in the district quarterfinals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Seeded No. 7, BHS held serve up to a 7-7 tie before the Bruins, seeded No. 2, pulled away to lead 14-7 after a quarter and 24-14 at halftime. It was 36-25 at the end of the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Basalt fell to 9-10 overall, the most wins for the program since the 2007-08 team went 23-4 overall. It\u2019s unlikely the Longhorns make the state tournament <a href=\"https:\/\/chsaanow.com\/rpi\/girls-basketball\/3a\/\">based on RPI<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Cedaredge (17-3) will play No. 3 Grand Valley in Friday\u2019s semifinals. No. 1 Delta and No. 4 Roaring Fork will meet in the other semifinal. The Rams won, 48-41, over No. 5 Coal Ridge on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-boys-basketball-upsets-coal-ridge-in-district-quarterfinals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coal Ridge\u2019s Irvin Ortega, Hank DiMarco and Andrew Herrera walk off the court stunned as Aspen celebrates a two-point victory in overtime on Tuesday in New Castle.Kyle Mills\/Post Independent Coal Ridge coach Paul Harvey reacts as the Titans turn over the ball late in the overtime period against Aspen Tuesday in New Castle.Kyle Mills\/Post Independent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 13:40:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}