The Mullen Mustangs played a pretty effective game of keep-away Saturday afternoon at the Denver Coliseum, and it helped the defending champs win a Class 5A quarterfinal basketball contest.

Mullen, the fifth-seed in the Casey Region, built a double-digit lead in the first quarter, and then played at its pace while eliminating second-seeded ThunderRidge 51-36 in a Great Eight showdown.

The Mustangs (16-10) were able to take big chunks of time off the clock with every possessions as their group of guards — Devin Aguilar, Terrance Dent and Kyle Theret — ran Mullen's ball control offense to perfection.

"We put in our motion offense and we have three strong guards to run it," said Dent, a 6-foot-1 junior. "We can drive out of it, penetrate and kick it out or penetrate and finish. It takes a lot of pressure off our big men."

Dent, who moved to Colorado after playing at Laramie High School in Wyoming last year, had a huge first quarter, scoring eight of is game-high 19 points. He hit a pair of three-pointers, as Mullen finished the periods with an 11-0 run to open a 16-6 cushion.

The Mustangs slowed the game down considerably after that, holding the Grizzlies (21-5) to 14 points over the next two quarters. Mullen only scored 17 points in that stretch — the Mustangs only attempted five shots in the third quarter — but they were able to increase their lead.

Dent said the team takes pride in its ability to eat up the clock while putting points on the board.

"Against Montbello (in the third round) we took a whole minute off the clock at the end of the third quarter and we got a bucket," said Dent, who was 6 of 8 from the floor against ThunderRidge. "That was huge for us because it showed how patient we can be."

The Grizzlies, who won the Continental League this season, don't mind playing a ball-control game, but not when they're the team trailing.

"(Mullen) did a terrific job controlling the tempo, and they hit some timely shots," said ThunderRidge coach Joe Ortiz, whose team was 2 of 21 from beyond the three-point arc. "We play that way too, but we were behind so it was different. We couldn't hit shots and things continued to get tighter for us."

After watching the deficit soar to as high as 17 in the third quarter, the Grizzlies were able to whittle it down to 10 points with 2:40 left to play. David Arnold made three buckets after strong drives to the hole, and Scott Day and R.J. Jelniker hit three pointers. But a quick 9-0 burst, with seven of the points coming from the foul line, salted away the game.

Dent, Aguilar (10 points) and Theret (8 points) combined to score 37 of the Mustangs' 51 points.

"Their guards are terrific. They're really good," Otiz said.. "They're much better than their seeding."

Mullen 51, ThunderRidge 36

Mullen 16 11 6 18 — 51

ThunderRidge 6 6 8 16 — 36

Mullen — Devin Aguilar 3 3-4 10, Kyle Theret 4 0-0 8, Terrance Dent 6 5-5 19, David Burns 2 3-4 7, Stan Jones 3 0-2 6, Hassan Safieddine 0 1-2 1. Totals 18 12-17 51.

ThunderRidge — Scott Day 4 0-0 9, R.J. Jelniker 1 0-0 3, Chris Gaiter 1 0-0 2, Matt Stern 1 0-0 2, Dave Arnold 3 2-2 8, Zach Tiedgen 2 4-4 8, Justin Becker 2 0-0 4. Totals 14 6-6 36.

Three-point field goals — Mullen, Dent 2, Aguilar. ThunderRidge, Day, Jelniker. Fouled out — Day.