EVERGREEN — D’Evelyn at least delayed Evergreen staking claim to the Class 4A Jeffco League boys basketball title Wednesday night.
The Jaguars took a 57-51 road victory against the No. 6-ranked Cougars. Evergreen (7-2, 6-1 in 4A Jeffco) had the chance to clinch the 4A Jeffco League title with a win over D’Evelyn. The Cougars haven’t won a boys hoops league title since the 2003-04 season.
“Dolan has a great team,” D’Evelyn coach Will Gosch said of Evergreen coach Jeff Dolan’s Cougars. “I think we caught them off guard. I have to give credit to our kids and I think our coaching staff had a good plan coming in.”
Evergreen does still control its own destiny in winning the conference title. The Cougars have one league game remaining at home against Alameda International (0-8, 0-7) on Friday. Evergreen has the head-to-head tiebreaker over No. 15 Green Mountain (7-2, 6-1), so a win over Alameda will still clinch the league title for the Cougars.
However, the snowy Wednesday night in Evergreen belonged to D’Evelyn. The Jaguars (6-3, 4-3) came in on a 2-game losing streak after losses to Golden and Green Mountain, but D’Evelyn came out firing scoring 22 points in the first quarter.
“We are learning what it means to be ready and playing in this system,” Gosch said. “It’s fun when a kid starts getting hot.”
D’Evelyn junior Dewayne Johnson scored at will in the first quarter. Johnson poured in 15 points in the first 8 minutes that included three 3-pointers and a monster dunk on a breakaway.
“DJ came up huge in the first quarter,” D’Evelyn junior Max Grant said. “That kind of set the tone for the whole game and we built off that energy.”
D’Evelyn broke out to a 22-14 lead in the first quarter against a stingy Evergreen defense that hadn’t allowed any opponent 50+ points in a game this season.
“We haven’t seen DJ play like that,” Gosch said of Johnson. “He has a pretty shot and he trusted his shot early.”
The Cougars locked down defensively on Johnson as he finished with 17 points, but Grant, senior Luke Kjellsen, Troy Benko and Bodhi Anderson combined for 29 points for the Jaguars.
A huge key was the third quarter where D’Evelyn was able to extend its 31-29 halftime lead to double-digits with driving layup by sophomore Elijah Gusmus that turned into a 3-point play when he was fouled.
“Our goal was to get the first two minutes out of the way and we did,” Gosch said of the Jaguars’ mentality coming out of halftime. “We kept attacking the rim. We’ve been light and tentative going to the rim at times this year. We have work on that a lot.”
Evergreen turned up the pressure defensively and nearly tied the game in the final minute. The Cougars forced a handful of D’Evelyn turnovers, but the shots just wouldn’t fall in the final minute for Evergreen.
Evergreen senior Jackson Mott finished with a team-high 17 points. Senior Griffin Lauritano pitched in 15 points and senior Jared Stiller had 11 points in the loss that ended a 7-game winning streak for the Cougars.
“It’s a great win, but we aren’t satisfied,” Grant said.
D’Evelyn was No. 25 in the RPI standings before Wednesday’s win. The Jaguars head into their final five games of their regular-season schedule with some momentum.
“I feel like this is a great start to something special,” Gosch said.
Evergreen closes out its regular season after Friday’s league finale against Alameda with non-league games against Wheat Ridge, Golden, Standley Lake and Green Mountain. The Cougars will likely grab the automatic bid for the 32-team 4A state tournament as the 4A Jeffco League champion.
Brackets are scheduled to be released Monday, March 8. First-round games will be played Tuesday, March 9.
