Green Mountain girls basketball completes three-peat in 4A Jeffco League

LAKEWOOD — It was a night of celebration all the way around Thursday night for Green Mountain’s girls basketball program.

The Rams honored their seven seniors — Olivia Sears, Shea Murphy, Morgan Falconer, Avery Oaster, Brynn West, Jasmine McColl and Julia Primak — before Green Mountain’s regular-season home finale against Wheat Ridge.

“It was so fun. It felt really special. I just love all those girls,” Murphy said of the seven seniors. “They made it pretty special. It was exciting, but sad at the same time.”

“I think it was really special because I’ve grown up and played with most of these girls since the third-grade,” Oaster added. “It’s really emotional for me.”

After the speeches, Green Mountain — No. 7 in CHSAANow.com‘s Class 4A rankings — took care of business on the court with a 67-18 victory over the Farmers. The Rams (21-2, 13-1 in 4A Jeffco) officially wrapped up back-to-back-to-back conference titles.

“It always means a lot to win,” said Oaster of the Rams staking claim to the third straight league title.

Green Mountain did come up short on a third straight clean sweep in conference play. No. 10 D’Evelyn defeated Green Mountain less than a week ago, but the Rams were still declared league champs. Green Mountain had a better margin-of-victory in the two head-to-head league battles against D’Evelyn (18-3, 12-1).

“It made us realize we need to sharpen the knife,” Green Mountain coach Darren Pitzner said of the overtime loss at D’Evelyn on Feb. 11 that ended the Rams’ 38-game league winning streak that dated back to the 2018-19 season. “We need to really needed to dial it in and value the basketball more. We had a couple of games in a row with too many turnovers.”

The Rams were dialed in against Wheat Ridge (7-15, 5-10). Oaster finished with a game-high 21 points. Fellow seniors — Sears and Murphy — combined for 20 points.

Murphy has been a key piece for the last four seasons where Green Mountain’s varsity team has amassed an 80-13 overall record. During the senior recognition Pitzner announced that it is believed that Murphy has the most varsity wins of any player in Green Mountain’s girls basketball program history.

“That was really special to me,” said Murphy, who also recorded her 200 career assist in Thursday night’s win. “To think that I’ve played that long and had so many wins with Pitzner and this team. That made me a little teary-eyed that I’m leaving all of that now. I’m glad I made an impact on this program.”

Junior Jayda Maves (15 points) made her mark going 5-for-6 from 3-point range in the win. Last year’s 4A Jeffco League MVP went over the 1,000-point career mark with her fifth 3-pointer that came late in the third quarter.

Oaster just went over the 800-point career mark early this week in a non-league victory over D’Evelyn to avenge the loss the pervious week.

“I love the selflessness,” Pitzner said of his team. “Individual records are purely a function of selflessness and moving the ball. Those records just come with being a great team.”

Green Mountain now turn its attention to the postseason. The Rams advanced to the 4A state semifinals the past two seasons, but haven’t been able to make it to a title game.

“We’ve made it to the Final 4, but we really need to make it to the championship,” Murphy said. “We are so close. Our team chemistry is so great.”

Pitzner said he is excited to get in some quality practice time after the Rams finished the regular season playing seven games in 11 days.

“I’m really glad we have some time to practice now,” Pitzner said of likely the first-round bye and not playing until hosting a second-round game until Friday, Feb. 25. “I’m really excited to get to work.”