LITTLETON — Arvada West senior Zion Thomas put the defensive exclamation point in a comeback road victory Wednesday night for the Wildcats.
A-West (12-4, 4-1 in Class 6A Jeffco League) had erased a double-digit lead by Columbine (9-6, 2-2) on its home court in the league game. A-West senior Jasper Padia made a pair of free throws with 11.2 seconds remaining to put the Wildcats up 61-60.
Columbine senior Tyler Casey brought up the ball with Thomas guarding him. When Casey passed the ball to senior Ty Afaimi on the baseline, Thomas quickly came over to help and blocked the potential game-winning shot of Afaimi.
“That was an incredible and huge defensive play,” A-West coach Jeff Perriott said of the block by Thomas on Afaimi.
Padia grabbed the loose ball and was fouled with .4 seconds left. Padia, who finished with a team-high 23 points, made both free throws for good measure to lift A-West to a 63-60 victory.
“We were down going into halftime, but we knew what we could do,” Padia said of trailing 39-28 at the break. “We knew we could hold them. We just needed to work together. We chipped our way back. It was a good win as a team.”
Columbine senior Levi O’Brien had a first half to remember. The younger brother of current University of Colorado basketball player Luke O’Brien poured in 26 points in the first half. O’Brien had five 3-pointers in the first half, including one at the buzzer to end the half.
However, A-West face guarded O’Brien in the second half with junior Anthony Grieve in charge of denying O’Brien the ball. Columbine’s leading scorer had just one bucket in the second half to finish with 28 points.
“He (O’Brien) is a great player. A lot of respect to him. He came out hot,” Padia said. “We made an adjustment on him. We did denied him the ball in the second half. We didn’t want the ball in his hands.”
Parriott was pleased how his entire defense limited Columbine to just 21 points in the second half to help erase the double-digit deficit.
“Anthony Grieve just did an excellent job just staying attached to O’Brien in the second half,” Parriott said.
Offensively, Padia and fellow senior Carson Nichols combined for 27 points in the second half. Padia went 5-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final minutes and junior James Hadzic made two key shots from the charity stripe with 12 seconds to play to cut the Rebels’ lead to 60-59.
Columbine had a 5-second call trying to in-bound the ball after Hadzic’s free throws. Padia was fouled with 11.2 seconds left and made both to put the Wildcats up for good.
“Those little things make or break the game,” Padia said of shutting down O’Brien in the second half along with Thomas’s block on the Rebels’ final shot. “Those made the game for us tonight.”
A-West was coming off its biggest win of the season. The Wildcats grabbed a huge league victory over Valor Christian (9-7, 4-1) on Monday. The 65-63 road victory by A-West reeled Valor back to the pack. Through the first four 6A Jeffco League games all seven teams have at least one loss.
Columbine was also on a 2-game winning streak coming into the mid-week game. The Rebels defeated rival Chatfield last Friday and took a non-league victory over Grandview on Monday.
The Rebels stay a home coming up on Friday, Jan. 27, to face Chatfield again. The Wildcats return home for the beginning of a 3-game home stretch starting with Lakewood on Friday, Jan. 27.
“We are feeling really good, but now it’s on to the next game,” Padia said. “Everyone is going to have to do their part to get that win against Lakewood.”
A-West has won 6-of-7 games since coming out of the Winter Break.
“I’m very happy. I didn’t know what we would have with this group,” Perriott said of the Wildcats’ 12-4 record with seven regular-season games left. “I really love our guys, but you never know how far you are going to progress. Sitting with 12 wins I’m very happy with where we are at.”
Parriott is encouraged that he also sees that there is room for improvement as the Wildcats battle in the tightly contested conference.