Ptasinski, Clark Lead Regis Over Arapahoe

Regis coach Ken Shaw directs his troops during a timeout of the Raiders' 86-72 victory over Arapahoe Friday night. Regis advances to the Final Four to play Doherty.

Photo by Pat Miller, patmiller.com

DENVER—On the road to the Final Four, and possibly to being repeat state champions, the Regis Raiders have weathered the knockout punch of every team they have faced.  On Friday, in the third Great Eight game of the evening, the boys from Regis took the best punch the second seeded Arapahoe Warriors could throw, and were still standing afterward.

To start the game, Arapahoe senior forward Tim Billingsley hit three three-pointers in a row, one-two-three.  In fact both teams were making it rain in the first.  The two teams combined for eight three-pointers in the quarter.

Despite Billingsley’s three-point barrage, Regis’ junior point guard Michael Clark took the reigns of the game and rode the Raiders to a 21-7 first quarter lead. “Michael here stepped up,” said senior Joey Ptasinski, pointing to his teammate.  “Made a bunch of shots, great defense, lot of steals, he made great plays on offense, lot of assists.  He just got us pumped.”

The second quarter saw the workman-like Raiders jump out even farther ahead.  Drew Dyer was sent on Tim Billingsley defensive duty for the rest of the half, and limited the Arapahoe leading scorer to only two more points.  Into the break, Regis had extended the lead to 35-25.  

There was no rest for the weary.  In the third the Raider guards, particularly Joey Ptasinski and Tanner Samson, jumped every passing lane and careless dribble and found each other or teammates for easy transition buckets.

Feeling their oats, the Regis student section, always a rowdy bunch began egging on the Arapahoe crowd-“Why so quiet?  Why so quiet?”

Entering the fourth quarter Arapahoe trailed by 13, 56-43.  The Warriors are a proud team, and just like a proud prize fighter they went out swinging.  For the final eight minutes both teams threw down.

Arapahoe put on a full court press and forced some turnovers.  Senior Cody Keen was the primary on-ball defender, and was often closer to the Regis players than their own jerseys.

On offense 6-foot-5 Parker Semin got aggressive and started making and-1 buckets.  Senior Dan Eigner found some offense, a little inside, a little outside.  Tyler Balli played some pretty good ball in getting Arapahoe back within single digits.  By this time, the Regis students no longer needed to ask about the Arapahoe students’ volume.

All the while, Regis just kept doing the right things.  The Raiders used as much clock as they could before getting fouled, and once fouled, they hit their free throws.  Ptasinski hit six in a row and Clark five of six.

The last two minutes of the game took about 40 minutes to play, but eventually the clock did run out.  Just as Regis had been ahead at the end of the first, second and third quarters, so too were they ahead at the end of the game 86-72.

For the second time in two years, the Regis Raiders are headed to the Final Four on the campus of CU Boulder.  Coach Ken Shaw said, “Obviously we came in with a little bit of a target on our back, but still, to get there- it’s an achievement.”

Checkout the updated brackets.

Contact the writer at csilverman@milehighhoops.com