D’Evelyn girls basketball trending in the right direction once again

DENVER — D’Evelyn girls basketball team allowed the 6-7 trend to stay relevant for at least one more night on Friday.

The Jaguars remained undefeated on the season with a 67-39 home victory over Summit during the second night of the Kindness Classic co-hosted by D’Evelyn and Lakewood.

D’Evelyn’s bench exploded when junior Akita Dutta drained a jumper with under a minute to play to give the Jaguars 6-7 on the scoreboard. D’Evelyn is off to a 6-0 start, but has a way to go to reach its 17-0 start of a year ago.

“Every year is different. You just never know,” D’Evelyn coach Chris Olson said when asked if this team has the capability of duplicating the long win streak from last year. “Everyone has a different team. Summit showed up today with a 6-foot-2 9th-grader. We are just going to worry about winning tomorrow’s game.”

The final day of the Kindness Classic will wrap up Saturday, Dec. 13. Summit will face Sand Creek at noon and the tournament concludes with D’Evelyn versus Lakewood at 1:30 p.m. Both games will be played at Lakewood High School.

It has been nearly 10 years since Lakewood basketball star Makenzie Forrest passed away after a car accident. Forrest was a senior at Lakewood High School and was planning on continuing her basketball career at Regis University.

“The whole thing about keeping someone like (Mackenzie Forrest) in your memory for us old guys,” Olson said. “Chris (Lakewood coach Chris Poisson) and I got to work with her. We’ve stayed close to the family through the last decade. We’ve tried to help in any way we can.”

D’Evelyn does a Kindness Matters Project where families buy gifts and donate them to Lasley Elementary School. It is also a week where Olson encourages his players to reach out to anyone who might be struggling with the stress of finals, the holidays etc…

“We know how great of a person she was and a great basketball player,” D’Evelyn junior Colleen Monahan said. “Especially tonight, we wanted to come out here and focus on honoring her with our play. Playing hard and giving it all we’ve got.”

Monahan came out shooting similar to how Forrest could put up points in bunches. The junior led the way for D’Evelyn with a game-high 28 points.

“I defintely got in that rhythm,” Monahan said of scoring 14 points in the opening quarter. “Sometimes if I can get an easy shot like a layup or free throw early on I just keep it going.”

Monahan finished with four 3-pointers, but was also aggressive taking the ball to the rim for easy layups.

“We’ve known for years that she has the skill set to do that,” Olson said of Monahan after she tied her highest single scoring game of her career. “I thought she did a good job of hitting some outside shots, but then driving to the rim. That is what we’ve been working on a bit.”

Monahan has 28 points against Evergreen last season in a conference victory.

Sophomore Lyla Nagy also finished in double-digit points for the Jaguars with 11 points. Senior Dani Davis and junior Bobbi Jo Marvel both pitched in 8 points each for the Jaguars.

“I just get so excited after all these years of girls stepping into roles,” Olson said. “Seeing Bobbi Jo have a really good game and play a good amount of minutes. See Hazel (Hermes) being asked to do more and doing it.”

Hermes had the task of trying to keep Summit’s 6-foot-2 freshman Jade Close in check. Close finished with 11 points. 

D’Evelyn will play eight games in the span of 15 days to start the season before Winter Break. Olson intentionally plans his schedule in that fashion due to the handful of multiple-sport athletes he has.

“We try to play a lot of games early,” Olson said of the set-up of the Jaguars’ non-league schedule. “There are the volleyball and softball players that we don’t see until November. We load up in December because we’ve got to be ready.”