Stauffer's 17 earns him an early rest as Discovery Canyon cruises to 2nd round

Senior Andy Stauffer looked restless on the bench in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s playoff game. He wanted to go in just one more time in front of his home fans.

But thanks to a lopsided game in favor of host Discovery Canyon, Thunder coach John Paul Geniesse decided to rest his starter instead.

Stauffer scored a game-high 17 points in limited time, while fellow seniors Geo Fry and Brandon Nachbar each added nine points in a game the fifth-seeded Thunder led by as many as 28 to cruise to a 65-45 win over No. 12 Vista PEAK in the first round of the 4A playoffs.

After the game, Stauffer was thankful the Thunder didn’t get a bye. He took this time to soak in his last moments in the Discovery Canyon gymnasium.

“I love playing here,” the 6-foot-3 senior said. “I know all eight of us seniors wanted to come out and play our hearts out in front of our fans. I’m glad we got to play this game. And it helped us get out some of our mistakes.”

While Discovery Canyon’s mistakes didn’t go unnoticed Wednesday — as 10 of DC’s 15 turnovers were unforced — the rout came on early and stayed often, as the Thunder had 20 steals on the night.

“I thought we played pretty darn good,” Geniesse said.

Moments into the game, the Thunder knocked down consecutive 3-pointers from John Howlette and Fry to take a 6-0 lead. Later in the quarter, Fry slammed home a dunk and Peter Call spun a layup in to increase the lead to 12-0 with 3 minutes left in the opening frame.

“We came out early and got our transition game going early,” Geniesse said. “We didn’t take long to score and that’s always a good thing.”

As for the Bison of Vista PEAK, they looked helpless through three quarters. With 4 minutes left in the first half, Stauffer missed three consecutive shots only to get three consecutive rebounds on the same possession. He then passed it out to Howlette, who drained his second 3 of the night as Vista PEAK could only watch.

During the second and third quarters, the Thunder turned off the lights when they converted 12 steals into 22-fastbreak points.

“We just matched them physically and frustrated them,” said Stauffer who turned three steals into seven points in the third quarter. “We were ready tonight.”

Friday, the Thunder will travel to D’Evelyn High School for a 3:30 p.m. tipoff against No. 4 Longmont, who earned a bye in the first round.

Geniesse said he likes his team’s chances.

“First we got this game tonight and I thought that was great for us. I love we didn’t have the bye,” Geniesse said. “We didn’t have a week off and I think that’ll help us going forward.”