Caprinello-led Rebels win Jeffco title

Nick Carpinello doesn’t consider himself to be a selfish person, but the Columbine Rebels point guard didn’t want his team to share its first 5A Jeffco League title in 13 years on Feb. 17.
Because of his career-high 37 points it won’t have to.
Carpinello scored all 12 of his team’s points in the third quarter and the Rebels never trailed in sweeping the season series with rival Chatfield 65-44 at Columbine High School. The home team beat out Ralston Valley by one game to secure its first league championship since 1999.
“It’s really special. It’s (been) a long time,” Columbine head coach Clay Thielking said. “These kids put a ton of work in. Nobody knows how hard these guys work all year long. They’re deserving of this. I’m really, really happy for them.”
Even if Columbine had lost to the Chargers it still would’ve held the tiebreaker with Ralston Valley for league supremacy thanks to points differential. But because of Carpinello’s scoring and the complimentary play of his teammates it won’t have to share it with anybody.
Columbine (19-4, 14-2 5A Jeffco) jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the game’s first four minutes and never looked back. Chatfield did wiggle its deficit down to four later in the quarter, but the game was never really that close.
The Rebels opened the second quarter on a 14-4 run to go up by 19. Eight of those points coming from Carpinello, including two of his three 3-pointers.
“He played a great game. We didn’t help out. Our team defense really let us down,” Chatfield Senior head coach Steve Schimpeler said.
Sure, Carpinello was the catalyst, but his supporting cast, including 10 points from Chris Huth, pitched in when it could. And the senior point guard noted that, shying away from taking any of the credit.
“It wasn’t me. It was everybody,” Carpinello said. “This is awesome. This is an awesome feeling.”
Columbine led by 20 in the third quarter and eventually 23 in the fourth.
“We did play well. We came out strong, we got the lead early. I thought we guarded (Chatfield junior guard Brenden) Mann well. He hit some threes. He’s going to do that because he’s a great player. Then Nick just took over. I’m glad he’s on our team. We’re in pretty good hands with No. 10. He put us on his back tonight and we won a title,” Thielking said.
Mann led Chatfield (13-10, 11-5) with 12 points. Andrew St. Germain added 11 and Nathan Rust scored nine. But now Chatfield must brush off a third consecutive loss with the 5A state playoffs on the horizon.
“You’re down tonight, but you wake up in the morning and it’s a new day. It’s high school basketball. They played really well tonight. We didn’t play as well as we were capable of. You have to put it behind you. That’s what you do when you compete and you don’t play well,” Schimpeler said.