As Rangeview continues their second consecutive Championship run, the Raiders beat Columbine in a 59-43 victory on Saturday night to continue their 26 game win streak this season. With 8 of the boys in the scoring column, Senior Obi Agbim led the team with 19 points, followed by Senior Christopher Speller with his 11 points. 

The game started off with Columbine’s Justin Lohrenz scoring 2 points before Rangeview began a 10-2 to give them the lead, before Columbine’s Luke O’Brien scored and ended the quarter with Rangeview up 10-6.

In the second quarter, the Raiders and Rebels continued to trade baskets until Junior Cade Palmer hit a 3 to put the Raiders up 18-9, Shortly following this, Agbim sent the arena into a frenzy with an explosive putback dunk to put the Raiders up 23-15. 

When I asked Agbim about his putback, he answered, “To be honest, I just wanted to help my team by going for every rebound… and honestly it just went my way, and I had it in my hand and just threw it down.”

Agbim also led the team in rebounding with 8 total, but as the quarter concluded, O’Brien and Lohrenz continued to try to keep Columbine in the game, but Rangeview continued to answer back leading 29-21 at halftime.

Rangeview continued to extend their lead through the third quarter, with Speller scoring 8 of his 11 points, and helping to lead the Raiders in which extended the lead 46 to 34. An important factor to this quarter was that Rangeview held both O’Brien and Lohrenz to just 4 points each.

As the fourth quarter cruised by, the Raiders continued to maintain their lead through hard nosed defense, allowing only 9 points, ending Columbine’s season, and advancing to the Final Four. 

Although Rangeview’s scoring continued to stay consistent throughout the game, their defense and rebounding is what truly flourished. Junior Jayden Foster is one player responsible for many of the stops. Lohrenz gave the Raiders trouble early, taking 4 charges, rebounding, and scoring.

When asking Foster about how his approach changed to better defend Lohrenz, he said, “He was very aggressive and I had to find a way to use my skill against his, so I had to use my force as he was using his force. He took the shots that I wanted him to, and then it led us to a great victory.”

Rangeview plays Grandview on Friday Night at 7 PM at the Denver Coliseum. No students or fans will be able to attend the game, so we will be covering the game on our twitter page. You can also watch on the NFHS network if you have a paid subscription.