Dakota Ridge boys wrap up league title in dramatic fashion

LITTLETON — Dakota Ridge senior Alex Rodriguez might never hit a bigger 3-pointer on the basketball court in his life.

With Dakota Ridge and D’Evelyn tied at 62-62, the senior guard drained a 3-pointer from the corner with 1.5 seconds left to give Dakota Ridge the dramatic 65-62 victory Wednesday night.

Dakota Ridge sophomore Ethan Berninger, who had a game-high 25 points, drove the lane as the final seconds ticked down. When three Jaguars converged on Berninger he passed the ball to Rodriguez in the corner.

“The plan was to get (Berninger) the ball and expect him to make the right basketball play. He did,” Dakota Ridge coach Sean Kovar said. “He hit the open shooter. Alex is a senior guy who has been starting for me since a sophomore. I didn’t expect anything less when he let that one go.”

It was the first 3-pointer Rodriguez had made all game.

“The play was drawn up for my guy Ethan to get downhill and get a bucket,” Rodriguez said. “Props to him to have trust in his teammate. It was great vision by him to get us an open shot.”

D’Evelyn (11-8, 7-2 in Class 5A/4A Jeffco League) had 1.5 seconds to try to muster up a game-tying 3-pointer, but couldn’t get a shot off having to go the length of the court. The victory for Dakota Ridge (16-4, 9-0) officially clinched the conference title for the Eagles.

“It means a ton,” Kovar said. “It validates their hard work, validates their unselfishness, validates all the hard work they have given to Dakota Ridge basketball. For them to see the fruits of their labor is so special as a coach. For them to receive that plaque right now gave me goosebumps. It’s the coolest thing.”

This is the first boys basketball conference title for the Eagles since the 2014-15 season when Dakota Ridge won the 5A Jeffco League title.

“It means a heck of a lot. It means so much to all of our guys,” Rodriguez said of the conference title. “We wanted this so bad, but we aren’t done yet. We have a lot more to do.”

The Eagles finish up their league schedule at Pomona on Friday night. Dakota Ridge plays two games during Jeffco’s end-of-season tournament. Those games will be played Feb. 15 and Feb. 17 before the start of the 5A state tournament that begins Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Dakota Ridge — No. 6 in the CHSAANow.com boys basketball rankings — was coming off back-to-back losses to 6A powerhouses — No. 1 Mountain Vista and No. 4 Denver East — last week.

“I told our guys we aren’t worried about seeding,” Kovar said of heading into the postseason. “We are worried about being the best team we can be. We want to be battle tested and road tested. Those two games (Denver East and Mountain Vista) were great for us. Tonight was great too. We took some really good punches from D’Evelyn.”

D’Evelyn played extremely tough coming off a rough home loss to Golden last Saturday. Seniors Kellen Olson (18 points), Nick Vacanti (15 points), along with junior Taj Kumar (18 points) led a valiant effort in an attempt from preventing Dakota Ridge from wrapping up the league title.

The Jaguars went on a 9-0 run in the final 2 minutes with Vacanti hitting a pair of 3-pointers and a 3-pointer from Olson with 45 seconds left tied things up at 62-62.

D’Evelyn will attempt to avoid a 3-game losing streak when it hosts Green Mountain (13-7, 8-1) on Friday night before its two extra games next week. The Jaguars were sitting at No. 23 in the 4A RPI standings before Wednesday’s loss.