Seniors driving Central basketball

The Central High School boys basketball team might be primed for a playoff run. The Warriors have a hefty group of seniors who have grown up together. Toss in a handful of athletic underclassmen and a freshman who is stealing the show and you get a deep roster built to shoot the ball. The excitement of two big wins to open the season was tempered a bit with a stinging 59-55 loss to Moffat County on Saturday to close out the Warrior Challenge. “That game was tough because Moffat is physical and teams like that are going to give us trouble. We’ll have to get more creative offensively. So we’ll work on that because they’re not going to get any smaller when we play Colorado Academy,” said John Sidanycz, who has coached Central for the past five seasons. “We did some good things this weekend, it’s just Dec. 2.” Central (2-1) has eight seniors on its 11-player roster — John’s son Avery Sidanycz, Amari Thomas, Cam Redding, Jackson Amos, Carter Rodriguez, Carson Kidd, Kaine Thornton and Ryland Nostrand. The group has mostly been playing together since elementary school. Back then, they’d be running around the Sidanycz house and playing ball. Now, they’re doing it again on the Central gym floor. John Sidanycz coached Central from 2000-04 and returned in 2019 so he could coach this crop of seniors. “They’re all such good friends with each other. Sometimes too good of friends that they bicker a little bit,” Sidanycz said. “They’ve really grown over the summer in learning how to talk to each other, especially in pressure situations like today.” Sophomores Jaime Padilla and Asher Carter gave valuable minutes this weekend as well, but freshman Blake Rooks often stole the show off the bench. Rooks scored 45 points in three games and led the team on Saturday with 17, which included five 3-pointers. He made nine shots from beyond the arc this weekend. “It’s crazy. He’s such a great kid, works hard and he’s earned everything he’s gotten. The kids love him, I think that’s most important,” Sidanycz said. “We have a special group of seniors. They’ve been together since they were young, we’ve been working with them since about the 5th grade and they’ve known about him. They’ve watched him in our 3-on-3 tournaments and our skills camps. It’s probably rare (for a freshman to fit in) but our boys just want to win. So it doesn’t matter what grade the other guys are in.” Of course, Saturday’s loss left a sour taste in Central’s mouth. The Warriors, who stomped Rifle in an 8 p.m. game on Friday, seemed sluggish to start against the bigger Bulldogs (2-1). But they woke up in the middle quarters thanks to the basketball IQ of Redding, the shooting of Amos and Rooks, and the paint presence of Nostrand and Thornton. But Central again looked gassed in home stretch and scored 13 combined points in the fourth quarter and 4-minute overtime period. John Sidanycz’s team is built to shoot the ball. The roster is far from the biggest you’ll see but makes up for it in athleticism and confidence from deep. But when the shots weren’t falling late, size made the difference. Moffat’s Ian Hafey clanked a layup off of the side of the backboard with just a few ticks on the clock. Amos hauled in the rebound but Evan Beaver yanked it from him and banked in the game-tying score with one second to play. Bryant Carlson, who had 25 points, then hit a 3-pointer in OT to take the lead. Amos hit a 3 to make it a 58-55 game but Moffat prevailed. Norstrand worked the paint for 14 points and Amos had 13. But beyond them and Rooks, no one else on the roster scored more than three points. The Warriors struggled on layups and were only 8 of 14 from the free-throw line. “I think we were tired from last night and I think that showed in a physical game … We’re going to face teams that have big strong kids like that and we have to learn how to adjust,” Sidanycz said. “But we’ll figure it out.”

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SENIORS DRIVING CENTRAL BASKETBALL

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GJ Sentinel | 12/3/2023

PHOTO CREDIT: GJ Sentinel