Denver is who we thought they were – guard-driven, disruptive defensively and a collective offense finding itself. It wasn’t always pretty Friday afternoon but Denver basketball gave fans a glimps of what might be in an 97-80 win over Western Colorado at Hamilton Gym.
Denver played even-up with Western Colorado the first ten minutes of the game but pulled away from the Mountaineers and was never seriously threatened the rest of the game. Denver used a swarming defense during the first half to exit up 46-29. The final 20 minutes were more of the same as Denver’s frontcourt came to life and finished off the Mountaineers.
Starting guards Nicholas Shogbonyo (10 points, 1 Assist) and DeAndre Craig (15 points, 5 assists) played a solid tandem in the backcourt. Two freshman, Sebastian Akins (12 points, 2 assists) and Jon Mani (7 points, 2 steals) came off the bench to deliver some high-energy, productive and chaotic minutes for a swarming Denver defense that seemed to run out of gas the final ten minutes. Josh Lee (10 points 3 rebounds, 2 steals), recovering from what looked like a wrist injury, added stability to the backcourt as Denver came at the visitors in waves.
Freshman, center Tymo Sternicki scored 8 points with 6 assists and 4 rebounds in a silky smooth effort. Forward Pedro Lopez Sanvicente (13 points, 10 rebounds) and center Isiah Carr (10 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks) steadied themselves from a bumpy first half and finished strong on the offensive end. Still, Western Colorado scored some easy buckets in the paint and the two teams, surprisingly, ended up with 36 boards a piece.
Denver shot 53.3% from the field, 44% from three but struggled at the line (21/32). Denver’s up-tempo offense and swarming defense led to 29 personal foul calls on the Pioneers and 25 on the Mountaineers. Not the cleanest game by DU but a display of team depth on the perimeter and an overall defensive effort that was not present last season.
Next up for Denver is a trip to Ft. Collins to face Colorado State at 7:00 pm MT. Mountain West Network Radio: 104.3 The Fan HD3
D-2 opponents are an embarrassing for D1 schools to play. Game should not count!
Agree. On a Friday afternoon?! I bet they had a very small crowd.
A lot of mid-major basketball teams play D2 teams in non-conference. Not unusual and a good time to fine tune rotations. Feel free to not count these games if it makes you feel better.
When you have a new team with virtually all new players, you have to play games like this. The coaching staff can learn a lot from this experience. The team can learn a lot about each other. This entire group needs to learn how to win games. Despite what many fans think, losing rarely teaches a team much of anything except how to lose. It simply beats the group down. Proper scheduling is a key to.a successful program. And each year of his tenure, Coach Wulbrun has scheduled well, IMO. There are plenty of D1 opportunities ahead. By the way, Stanford crushed Cal State Fullerton today 80-53. And it was never really close or competitive. Denver was competitive for a large part of that Stanford game. Things are looking positive for the Pioneers.