BOULDER — It was Overland’s time. How else to explain the Trailblazers’ 2014-15 campaign that started slowly, came with assorted learning experiences and was capped in appropriate style late Saturday night at the University of Colorado’s Coors Events Center?

In taking the school’s first boys championship in any sport in 20 years — they won the 1995 5A boys soccer title — with a 55-42 victory over ThunderRidge, everybody’s preseason favorite finished 23-5, having won 20 of their last 21 games.

And the Trailblazers of Aurora handled it from start to finish like young men wiser than their years — they were whipped on opening day in December by Regis Jesuit and were 3-4 after an out-of-state trip.

But coach Danny Fisher, a former multisport star at nearby Hinkley, never wavered, nor did his players.

“We felt like we played an ugly game, but ThunderRidge is very well-coached, and (they Grizzlies) are going to make you uncomfortable,” Fisher said. “The maturity we had, we stuck to it. When things got tight, we responded really well.”

On Saturday, they weathered everything the Grizzlies, who finished 24-4, threw at them.

PHOTOS: Overland Trailblazers win boys 5A state championship

Handling most of it, as usual, was 6-foot-9 junior De’Ron Davis, who received a scholarship offer from Indiana three years ago before he took his first class at Overland and has turned into a walking double-double.

All Davis did was score 15 points, grab 15 rebounds and block eight shots and discourage several others in what amounted to a usual output for Colorado’s best rim protector, even if he always didn’t look smooth doing it. And his outlet passes after snaring rebounds should be legendary by next season.

“This feels better than I thought it would,” said an excited Davis. “It has been a long season with ups and downs. We all played together.”

As usual, the quiet Davis wasn’t alone. If Air Force-bound Ryan Swan, a forward, wasn’t doing it, then guards Reggie Gibson and Wyoming signee Austin Conway combined for ball movement, defense and 29 points, 18 by Conway.

For Conway, it was a sense of accomplishment.

“Nobody forgets the 5:30 a.m. practices,” he said. “Nobody forgot how hard coach pushes us. Nobody forget what Overland versus everybody meant, and we went out and laid our hearts on the line to win. Because all we wanted to do is prove our hard work wasn’t going to be wasted.”

Fisher also wasn’t afraid to unleash his bench with the likes of King Grant-Perry and the Halliburtons, Alijah and Brent, among others, and perhaps the most underrated aspect of Overland was its defense, which was considerable.

And as for Davis’ head-to-head matchup with the Grizzlies’ Nebraska Omaha-bound 6-10 Zach Pirog, air balls by each player on opening touches soon evolved into Davis holding the upper hand through more of a team setting. Pirog finished with just four points on hust 2-of-9 shooting.

“He was really able to limit Zach, which was huge for us,” Conway said of Davis.

As for ThunderRidge, coach Joe Ortiz’s group was right there at various points but missed opportunities in the form of turnovers or not being able to hit a key shot at the right time. Guard Noah Szilagyi, productive all season, led the Grizzlies with 15 points.

However, the Grizzlies shot only two free throws, almost hard to believe in a title game.

Conversely, Davis, who has been known to get into foul trouble, never did. In all, there were only 24 whistles for fours, nine on Overland.

And despite rumblings about him possible hitting the prep-school scene, he was asked if he’d like to return for another Colorado championship.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “We’ll all be back in the gym on Wednesday.”

Overland 15 6 17 17 — 55

ThunderRidge 7 11 7 17 — 42

Overland — Gibson 5-6 1-2 11, Conway 6-17 5-6 18, Wang 0-6 0-0 0, Lucas 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Davis 5-15 5-6 15, Yousef 0-0 0-0 0, A. Halliburton 2-2 3-4 7, B. Halliburton 0-1 0-0 0, Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Swan 1-3 2-2 4, Grant-Perry 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-51 15-18 55.

ThunderRidge — Engel 0-0 0-0 0, Harhigh 0-1 0-0 0, Bloom 0-0 0-0 0, Rodriguez 0-0 0-0 0, Szilagyi 6-13 0-0 15, Mueller 3-7 0-0 8, Verk 4-10 0-0 8, Seng 0-0 0-0 0, Brady 2-6 0-0 4, Pirog 2-9 0-0 4, Tiedgen 1-7 1-2 3, Varto 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-55 1-2 42.

3-point goals — Conway, Gibson; Szilagyi 3, Mueller 2. Total fouls — Overland 9, ThunderRidge 15. Fouled out — None. Technicals — None.

Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/neildevlin

All-tournament team

Blend Avdili, Eaglecrest, Sr.

Brian Carey, Denver East, Sr.

Austin Conway, Overland, Sr.

De’Ron Davis, Overland, Jr.

Zach Pirog, ThunderRidge, Sr.

MVP: Davis