No. 8 Golden grabs 4A Jeffco girls hoops title with win over No. 3 Evergreen
GOLDEN — The chants of, “League champs! League champs! League champs!” rang through the hallways at Golden High School on Tuesday night.
Golden’s girls basketball team clinched its first Class 4A Jeffco League title since winning five straight conference titles from 2004-2008. The Demons (19-3, 11-2 in league) edged Evergreen 56-51 to sweep the 2-game series against the Cougars (19-3, 10-3).
“To win at home for a league title was an amazing experience,” Golden junior Abby Garnett said. “I can’t even describe it.”
Tied for the conference lead with 2-games remaining, Evergreen and Golden went head-to-head on the Demons’ home court in a top-10 4A showdown. The Cougars are ranked No. 3 in the current CHSAANow.com poll and the Demons No. 8.
Golden had the advantage on Evergreen having won on the Cougars’ home court a little more than three weeks ago. Senior Sydney Prey’s late 3-pointer lifted the Demons to a 43-41 victory on Jan. 20.
“We knew Evergreen was going to make some adjustments,” Golden coach Greg Bolding said. “She (Evergreen coach Amy Bahl) does a great job of watching film and making great adjustments. We had to step up our game. It wasn’t going to come easy.”
The strategy was straight forward for the Demons — get the ball to Garnett and Prey. The oldest of the five Garnett and Prey sisters combined to score 45 points. Sydney finished with 26 points, just shy of a season high. Abby added 19 points.
Sydney had four 3-pointers and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. Abby also made a living from the charity stripe going 11-for-14.
“I have a lot of faith in my team,” Prey said. “I knew whoever had the ball in their hands we were going to get this done. We pulled through.”
Evergreen held a 41-37 lead with just less than 4 minutes to play when junior Hannah Kennedy nailed a 3-pointer. Kennedy came off the bench to lead the Cougars with 15 points.
However, Golden went on an 8-0 run led by a pair of buckets from Prey and a pair of free throws and a layup from Garnett to give Golden the lead for good with 2 minutes to play.
“Honestly, I think it came down to they made more plays at the end then we did,” Evergreen coach Amy Bahl said.
Evergreen’s lone senior Keigan Drysdale and sophomore Claudia Dillon had 10 points each, but it wasn’t enough to split the season series with the Golden. The Demons made 11 of 13 free throws in the final 90 seconds to clinch the program’s first league title in nearly a decade.
“We needed to get another league championship up there.” said Prey, Golden’s only senior this season. “Now we want to take this momentum and carry us through the playoffs.”
Golden’s league finale won’t be an easy one. The Demons go on the road to face D’Evelyn (16-6, 8-5) at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“To have the opportunity to play two teams like that before playoffs, not many teams get that chance. We are going to take advantage of it,” Bolding said. “We’ll celebrate winning league for a few more hours before we get ready for D’Evelyn.”
Evergreen and Golden did split their 2-game series against two-time defending state champion Valor Christian (14-8, 9-4). However, the Cougars and Demons had enough separation from the Eagles to make Tuesday night’s showdown determine the conference champion.
Evergreen is also on the road to wrap up its last game before the postseason. The Cougars are at Standley Lake (8-14, 3-10) at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“I keep on telling the girls we have experience moving forward into the state playoffs. That’s really an advantage for us,” Bahl said referring to the Cougars’ run to the 4A title game last year. “We still have one more game in conference play. We need to get back on track with that game.”
Both Golden and Evergreen will likely earn top 16 seeds for the state tournament and get first-round byes. The Demons and Cougars should host 2nd-round playoff games Friday, Feb. 24.
“There is definitely some pressure,” Garnett said. “It’s one game at a time, but we want to go far with Sydney.”
