Evergreen girls basketball wants to claw its way back to state title game
EVERGREEN — While Claudia Dillon enjoyed her state experience making it to the Class 4A girls basketball championship game as a freshman, she wasn’t thrilled with her vantage point in the end.
Dillon fouled out with just under six minutes to play in the title game against Jeffco League rival Valor Christian. With the 6-foot-2 forward on the bench, Evergreen suffered a 55-40 loss.
“I’m going to have to watch that and take extra careful measures,” Dillon said about staying out of foul trouble heading into her sophomore season. “Last year’s championship game keeps running through my mind. I still want to be aggressive, but I have to be smart.”
The fact that Valor handed Evergreen three of their four losses last season is something that eats away at the Cougars. Evergreen will get at least two cracks at the two-time defending state champions with conference games Jan. 18 and Feb. 11.
“My goal is to definitely beat Valor in at least one game, if not both. That would be ideal,” Evergreen senior Keigan Drysdale said. “Conifer might be our rival, but Valor is more important to me to beat.”
Drysdale, one of only two seniors for the Cougars, steps into the starting point guard role this season. Evergreen lost a lot of depth at the guard position do to graduation.
The graduation of Samantha Kisiel, who finished her impressive four-year career at Evergreen with more than 1,300 career points and nearly 700 rebounds, is also a glaring loss the Cougars must overcome.
“We’ll have to rely more on our inside game, but luckily we have Claudia,” Drysdale said. “It’s nice to have a sophomore who is 6-foot-2. She is quick and can run. She does a little bit of everything. If we have to lean on her (Dillon) we can. She will want the role and will go at it with everything she has.”
Dillon averaged eight points and seven rebounds per game last year. She really came on during the playoffs, including 14 points and seven rebounds in the Cougars’ state semifinal victory against Sand Creek.
“She (Dillon) definitely came on strong at the end of last year,” Evergreen coach Amy Bahl said. “She is going to get a lot more attention this year. We’ll see how that goes and how she deals with that. She is still young at only a sophomore.”
Dillon says she is up for the challenge to carry more of a load this season. She has a unique skill-set with not only size, but speed and mid-range shooting ability.
“I’m really looking to use my speed, especially when it comes on the defensive side,” Dillon said. “Looking for the steals and pushing the ball up the court.”
Bahl is entering her fifth year at the helm of Evergreen’s girls basketball program. She guided the Cougars to their first championship game appearance last year with a 24-4 record. Bahl feels the experience showed the young girls in her program what it takes to have success.
One goal Bahl would like to reach this season would bring home a conference title, something that has eluded the Cougars during Bahl’s tenure. Not an easy task with Valor reloading with talent every year, along with strong programs at D’Evelyn and Golden.
“I think our league is going to be really strong this year. Maybe the best in state,” Bahl said. “Our league will be tough and will prepare us for the playoffs.”
Juniors Baylee Galan-Browne, Hannah Kennedy, Meriel Hahn and Kristina Schreiber are four other returning varsity players who will be key roles for the Cougars as they attempt to climb back into title contention.
“I don’t think people are expecting us to be as good as we were with all the seniors we lost,” Drysdale said. “It would be super cool to come out and surprise everyone.”
Evergreen, No. 4 in the CHSAANow.com 4A girls basketball preseason poll, got off to a solid start to the season on opening night Wednesday with an impressive 46-19 road victory over Centaurus. The Cougars have back-to-back, non-league tests against other 4A state favorites next week. Evergreen hosts No. 2 Holy Family on Dec. 8, and travels to No. 3 Mullen on Dec. 9.
