AURORA — Denver East's Angels weren't exactly the happiest of campers Wednesday night.

Indeed, the Angels are top-ranked in The Denver Post's Class 5A coaches poll, and probably should be based on their talent and accomplishments.

But a sloppy 62-52 road decision over Cherokee Trail in a nonleague game on a rare trip to Aurora did little to boost the Angels' confidence.

"Didn't play well," coach Rudy Carey said. "Probably our worst game of the year. But we'll figure it out."

Now 6-1, Denver East led most of the way. But assorted mistakes kept the Angels from blowing out the Cougars (3-4) in a crowded gymnasium.

"We tried to do spectacular things when simple stuff would have cut it," Carey said.

The Angels, idle until after the holiday break, missed follow-up dunks and others when they were alone, and executed isolations, including down low, but clanked more than a handful of easy shots. Also, they were a step slow on defense at times. And Cherokee Trail beat the Angels' press more than once.

However, the Angels did enough to remain in command. Ronnie Harrell (16 points), Dominique Collier (12 points, and a good game on defense), Leonard Davis (10 points, six during a key third-quarter stretch) and Jevon Griffin (nine) handled most of the scoring load for the Angels. It was enough to weather a third-quarter surge by Cherokee Trail, mostly on the hot shooting of Roderick Bernstine (22 points) and R.J. Perry (15). But turnovers hurt the Cougars, as did Collier checking Bernstine over the game's final eight minutes.

"You can't waste trips against those guys," Cougars coach Morgan Gregory said of the Angels.