THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Grand Junction High School Athletics

In his final home game against Grand Junction High School, Marcus LaBonde put on a show. The senior for the Fruita Monument boys basketball team was far from the lone contributor, but he made his mark on the game and then some. As a result, a game that was back and forth for the first half of the first quarter quickly became a runaway. LaBonde scored 28 points, 14 in each half, as Fruita rolled past its rival 67-35 on Friday night in both teams’ Southwestern League opener. The Wildcats improved to 9-5 and the Tigers fell to 1-12. “I had this one in the books,” LaBonde said. “This was one circled on the schedule for me. We came here and took care of business pretty handily. That was our game plan.” Andy Smith opened the game with a basket and a foul for Grand Junction, but his free throw attempt was no good. LaBonde made a layup and Ian Barnes a right-wing jumper, but the Tigers’ Xavier Flores responded with a shot from beyond the arc to give Grand Junction a 5-4 lead 4 minutes 50 seconds in. What followed was a 14-0 run that irreversibly altered the course of the contest. “I just came in here and played my butt off,” LaBonde said. “That’s all I can do.” LaBonde, Barnes and Jack Hawkins each scored four points as the Wildcats took a 12-5 lead. Dillon Keithley got in on the scoring with a tip-in. Shortly after, Cole Savage earned an and-one opportunity of his own, though he missed his free throw. LaBonde’s third basket of the first quarter put the Wildcats ahead 18-6. That 12-point deficit was as close as Grand Junction got the rest of the night. The senior made a layup with 30 seconds left in the half and Keithley hit a shot from the free-throw line just before the buzzer as the Tigers took a 32-12 lead into halftime. LaBonde continued to find success in the third quarter, when he made a basket despite a foul. His successful free throw increased the Fruita advantage to 37-13. Later in the quarter, he drained another 3-pointer to give Fruita a 30-point lead. Tanner Willford stole the ensuing inbounds pass and laid it in for a 50-18 lead through three quarters. The Wildcats have dominated the rivalry as of late, beating Grand Junction five straight times by an average of 22.4 points per game. “(Beating Grand Junction) means everything,” LaBonde said. “This is one of the biggest games of the year. It’s our rival. They want to beat us and we want to beat them. There’s a lot of tension in the rivalry and we take pride in it.” Steamboat Springs 44, Palisade 41: The Bulldogs led 21-20 after one quarter but were outscored 24-20 the rest of the way. With the road loss, Palisade fell to 5-7 (1-2 Western Slope League). De Beque 65, Soroco 41: Wes Ryan scored 18 points to lead the defending state champion Dragons to their ninth straight victory. De Beque is 2-0 in the 1A/2A Western Slope League.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Grand Junction High School Athletics

LABONDE'S BIG NIGHT LIFTS FRUITA PAST GJHS

CHRISTOPHER TOMLINSON

The Daily Sentinel | 1/17/2020

PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Tomlinson