Green Mountain girls basketball clamps down on Chatfield

LAKEWOOD — Green Mountain girls basketball team’s defense was spectacular Friday night in the Rams’ home opener.

The Rams limited Chatfield to just a single made field goal in the opening half. Green Mountain took a 32-13 lead at halftime on the way to an impressive 55-34 victory.

“I told them at halftime, ‘That’s outstanding defense’. You can’t get any better than that,” Green Mountain coach Matteo Busnardo said after the 21-point win over the 6A Jeffco League squad. “On our stats, we had (Chatfield) shooting 1-for-21 in the first half. That’s huge defense. That is what won us the game.”

Chatfield junior Jordyn Reed had the lone field goal for the Chargers (3-2 record) in the opening half. Reed and senior Ava Erickson both finished with a team-high 9 points each in the second straight loss for Chatfield.

The Chargers got off to a 3-0 start this season, but couldn’t handle Green Mountain’s man-defense that limited Chatfield to just nine field goals the entire game in the second straight loss this week.

“We knew we had to prepare for Chatfield this whole week,” Green Mountain senior Taylor Ellington said. “They have been winning games by 30, 40 points. They beat Dakota Ridge by 45 points.” 

Chatfield was short-handed playing without Audrey Hubbell. The senior had been dealing with an illness this week and missed the road game at Green Mountain. Chatfield coach Jordan Laczkowski said after the game she still hopes to have Hubbell make the out-of-state tournament in Arizona that runs from Dec. 18-21.

“She is on our flight plans,” Laczkowski said of Hubbell hopefully feeling well enough to make the trip. “We talked in the locker room at halftime that we didn’t realize she was so much of the leadership she is, but it showed tonight. We need somebody who is ready to step up.”

Ellington stepped up for Green Mountain making a trio of 3-pointers in the first half for the Rams (4-3) to get the offense going. Sophomore Kantyn Pearson had a monster second half pouring in 13 of her game-high 14 points after halftime.

“Taylor is a returning starter from last year. A huge piece for this program,” said Busnardo of Ellington who finished with 13 points. “Kantyn was C Team last year and swung up to JV. I knew coming into this year she would be a huge piece on the varsity. We give out a chain after every game and the chain goes to Kantyn Pearson tonight.”

It was the first double-digit scoring game at the varsity level for the sophomore.

“Having a young team hurts sometimes, but we know they will have good years to come,” Ellington said. “Kantyn scoring 14 points in this game was big.”

Chatfield made a run early in the third quarter, but Green Mountain answered basket-for-basket to keep the Rams’ double-digit lead in order going into the fourth quarter.

“They are a great scramble offense and we tried to scout for it,” Laczkowski said. “Kudos to Matteo and his program.”

Green Mountain is off until the New Year. The Rams return to the court Jan. 3 with a trip up to Glenwood Springs.

“We’ll take this momentum into the break. We’ll get back to work,” Busnardo said. “There is always a target on our back. Green Mountain over the last four to five years has been a gauntlet.”

The Rams won three straight 4A Jeffco League titles from 2020 to 2022 before D’Evelyn captured the 5A/4A Jeffco championship last season.