Domination in the first half sent Denver East into an unbeatable lead, and the Angels carried it through for a 65-53 victory over Smoky Hill Saturday night at the Denver Coliseum.

The Angels came out of the postseason with a No. 2 seed, mostly because of a final loss to Montbello that split the Denver Prep League championship three ways, including Class 4A Lincoln.

"We've been off, these past few weeks, but the playoffs are a whole different game," East senior Blake Swain said.

Smoky Hill, the Centennial League champion and one of four No. 1 seeds, finished its season 22-4.

But East thrived in the spotlight of the Great 8 round, particularly three seniors. Guards Donell Wells (21 points) and Swain (12) both hit three-pointers in the first minute of play. Forward Jordan Martinez added 16 more, plus a game-high 15 rebounds.

"They're our seniors; they're our strength," junior forward Mookey Gilbert said. "They set the way and the rest of us just follow them."

East coach Rudy Carey echoed Gilbert's sentiment, as he watched his backcourt not only score, but also pass to players underneath for layups and harass Smoky Hill's shooters on their trips to the basket.

"Blake, Jamiko (Verner) and Donell are probably as good a backcourt as there is in the state, on both ends of the floor," Carey said..

The Angels (22-3) will now get a rematch against Doherty, another No. 1 seed, in the Final Four at the University of Colorado's Coors Events Center. The Spartans, playing on their home floor, demolished East 81-66 way back on Dec. 1.

East set a blistering pace offensively against the Buffaloes, but its active defense also caused problems.

"I think we might have thrown them off a little bit with our 3-2 defense," Carey said. "I think they thought we were going to come out man-to-man. It took them a while to adjust."

The Buffaloes had two 6-6 player who know how to rebound, but Martinez and even Wells were able to control the boards. Wells had eight rebounds and Martinez 15.

"I thought I had like seven," Martinez said. "Basically, you just box them out. The bigger they are, the easier it is to get lower on them."

Smoky Hill star Josh Cassaday was unhappy with how the Buffaloes began the game.

"It's hard not to come out (and then succeed) against a team like East," Cassaday said. "It looked like we had never seen a zone before."

Cassaday, a 6-6 senior led the Buffaloes with 19 points, but he certainly struggled at times and was pressing and shot only 7-of-16.

"I think they tried to close down the lanes to the basket, and try to force him to shoot outside a little bit," Smoky coach Ken Shaw said. "He was pretty intent on getting to the basket and sometimes there might have been bumps there, but you've got to play through them."

The Buffaloes finally showed what they can really do at the start of the second half. Smoky began the third quarter with an 8-0 run and ended up cutting 10 points off East's 34-14 halftime lead.

"We decided we had worked way too hard to lose to a team by (that) margin," Cassaday said. "We weren't about to go out like that. You just want to say it was one of those games, but that's an understatement because we shouldn't have played anything like that."

Some of Smoky's fight carried over into the fourth quarter, when the Buffaloes cut the score to 51-45 after two Cassaday free throws. But East went zooming off again, with Martinez free throws and two layups from Wells to boost its lead back up to 12 points.

Wells, a spectacular 6-foot veteran player, seemed to enjoy himself more than in any other game.

"Anytime you get to play basketball and get a win like this, it's fun," he said.

East passed extremely well to players underneath the basket, doubled up successfully on certain Smoky players and got contributions from the bench.

"That was the first time we played as a team, to me," Wells said. "We played a great team and we had to play as a team to beat that team."

Denver East 14 20 14 17 -- 65

Smoky Hill 4 10 24 15 -- 53

DE — Jamiko Verner 0 2-4 2, Jordan Martinez 4 8-11 16, Blake Swain 5 1-2 12, Donell Wells 5 8-12 21, Mookey Gilbert 7 0-1 14. Totals 21 19-30 65.

SH — Travis Stroth 2 0-0 5, Leon Whittington 4 2-3 10, Scott May 3 0-0 7, Phil Ross 1 0-0 2, Josh Cassaday 7 3-4 19, Sam Huebner 3 4-6 10. Totals 20 9-13 53.

Three-point goals — DE, Swain, Wells 3; SH, Stroth, May, Cassaday 2.

pearcea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5352

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