WESTMINSTER — In life and sports, it is important to put the past and what you can no longer control in the rearview mirror.
Green Mountain — No. 9 ranked Class 4A boys basketball team in the CHSAANow.com poll this week — did just that Monday night. The Rams took a 69-40 road victory against Standley Lake to put a positive memory ahead of last Friday night’s overtime loss to rival D’Evelyn.
“To be honest. We’ve moved on,” Green Mountain coach Mike Puccio said of the 57-50 overtime home loss to D’Evelyn. “We always said from the start that we are in control and we don’t want help. We are over it.”
D’Evelyn (15-5, 11-2 in 4A Jeffco) snatched the inside track to win the conference title over Green Mountain (16-3, 11-2). The Jaguars and Rams split the home-and-away league match-ups, but D’Evelyn would take the tiebreak over Green Mountain with point-differential in the head-to-head games if both finish with identical 13-2 league records.
Green Mountain closes the league season against Alameda and Wheat Ridge this week. While D’Evelyn finishes conference play versus Standley Lake and Littleton. The Jaguars did lose to Littleton the first go-around, so there is still a shot for Green Mountain to win the league title if D’Evelyn slips up.
“It still hurts losing to our rival and throwing us off when it comes to the league championship,” Green Mountain senior Cayson Pearson said. “But we are looking forward. Looking ahead. We have playoffs on our mind which is a better goal. It is good to have your mind on something bigger.”
The Rams were focused early against Standley Lake. Green Mountain defense jumped on the Gators (10-11, 7-7) with a handful of steals with the Rams’ full-court pressure defense to grab an early 7–0 lead.
“We didn’t want to come out sleepwalking,” Puccio said. “Life goes on. On to the next. It’s a great league and Tyson (Schrecengost) is doing a great job. You have to prepare to beat Standley. You can’t just walk in here.”
Standley Lake coach Tyson Schrecengost, who was once an assistant under Puccio, didn’t let the game get out of hand in the first half. The Gators’ trio of senior Silas Von, junior Kai Shaw-Pickard and freshman Derrek Sims combined to score all 40 of Standley Lake’s points.
Von finished with a game-high 18 points. Green Mountain held just a 26-16 lead at halftime.
“We talked at halftime about getting some layups and getting to the free-throw line,” Pearson said. “We only got to the line one time in the first half. It was definitely a focus for us and getting it to Corbin.”
Green Mountain senior Corbin Jantzer was held in check during the first half, but the Rams’ leading scorer poured in 11 points in the second half. Jantzer and Pearson both finished with 13 points each as the Rams started to pull away in the second half.
Seniors Luke Davis and Cooper Francy had a dozen points each while junior Jon Lord came off the bench contributing nine points. The Rams went 9-for-10 from the free-throw line in the third quarter alone to start stretching out their lead.
“We have to stop settling for shots at times,” Puccio said. “Getting to the line in a luxury and we need to get there more.”
The win was the first of four games over the next six days. Puccio described this as “Hell Week” for the Rams. Green Mountain play four games during the final week of the regular season, capping off the stretch with a road game against 5A Jeffco’s Dakota Ridge on Saturday.
“We are just trying to survive,” Puccio said.