Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — It’s no secret the Steamboat Springs High School boys basketball team is young, and it came as little surprise that the squad didn’t fare well Friday night when set against one of Class 4A’s true title contenders.

D’Evelyn beat Steamboat, 74-34, in the semifinals of the Steamboat Springs Shoot-Out, dropping the Sailors to the tournament’s third-place game, set for 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Coach Luke DeWolfe’s message after the game wasn’t one of frustration. Rather, he said the team Steamboat saw Friday is what he hopes his Sailors can be with more experience.

“That was a great learning experience for our kids, a great opportunity to see a high-quality, 4A team,” DeWolfe said.

D’Evelyn got up big early, leading 18-4 after the first quarter, and the team never wavered. The Jaguars led 46-11 at half and were led throughout the game by senior Luke Stratman, who finished with 32 points. He sank five 3-point shots and frequently made ringing it up on Steamboat’s defense look easy.

D’Evelyn also got 22 points from Cody Marvel and 12 from Connor Skelton.

From early in the game, it was about fighting for Steamboat, and DeWolfe said he saw plenty of that.

The Sailors’ best quarter was the third, when they scored 15 points. Garrett Bye led the team with 10 points, and Zach Dunklin had seven.

“It’s hard to be disappointed when kids work as hard as they can and leave it on the court,” DeWolfe said. “Defensively, we did some nice things as we got going. We had spurts where we made them uncomfortable, then offensively, their trap and press gives teams a lot of problems, but we were able to break it and get some looks in the second half.”

The Sailors play Montrose at 12:30 p.m. today for third place in the tournament.

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253 or email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com