D’Evelyn’s defense clips Heritage in girls hoops action at Kipling Winter Classic

DENVER — D’Evelyn’s girls basketball defense didn’t lose its ferociousness over Winter Break.

The Jaguars didn’t allow Heritage to score until freshman Maddy Walcott made a free throw with 3:13 left in the second quarter. D’Evelyn started the nearly first 13  minutes of the opening round of the Kipling Winter Classic with a 27-0 run Wednesday, on the way to a 57-17 home victory.

“It felt great coming out strong as a team,” D’Evelyn sophomore Giada Lampert said of the dominating start spearheaded by the Jaguars’ pressure defense. 

Lampert and junior Colleen Monahan combined for 17 points in the first half. The Jaguars led 31-3 at halftime in the first game for D’Evelyn since Dec. 16.

“We always try to take advantage of the other team because we like to run and are in pretty good shape. We can press and run a little bit more than our opponent is ready for,” D’Evelyn coach Chris Olson said coming out of Winter Break. “You saw that kind of spiral a little bit. We created some chances and converted. I loved how we flew around, did something different and learned something new.”

D’Evelyn was not only coming off Winter Break, but also its first loss of the season. Colorado Academy (7-2 record) took a 46-33 win over the Jaguars (8-1) on Dec. 16.

“You want to win every game, but you realize you aren’t going to,” Olson said of the loss to Colorado Academy. “You just build and learn from it.”

While losing games before conference play begins isn’t devastating, but losing players due to injury is tough. Hopefully the Jaguars won’t be without its leading scorer and rebounder for an extended amount of time.

Monahan was driving to the basket early in the third quarter, was fouled and then hit the floor grabbing her right knee. The junior — 13.4 points and 7 rebounds per game this season — had to be helped off the court and didn’t return to the game.

“It is definitely frightening. I just want her to know that I’m here for her,” Lampert said of Monahan going down in pain with 5:34 left in the third quarter. “She is a very strong player. I know she’ll hopefully make a quick recovery.”

Olson said the Jaguars will just have to wait and see how serious the injury is to Monahan. D’Evelyn has games coming up this week against Thomas Jefferson and Summit in the annual tournament co-hosted by Bear Creek and D’Evelyn. 

D’Evelyn will begin Class 5A/4A/3A Jeffco League play against Evergreen on Jan. 21.

A positive in the second half for the Jaguars on Wednesday night was the play of freshman Bethany Knoedler. The post player had three buckets in the span of under three minutes in the third quarter.

“I’m going to have to learn some post drills. I’m going to have to call some of my coach friends,” Olson said with a laugh talking about post players sophomore Hazel Hermes and Knoedler. “We always joke, if I had a 6-foot-2 post I wouldn’t know what to do with them anyways.”

Hermes and Knoedler could provide a formidable inside force for D’Evelyn that is known for its pressure defense creating easy buckets and outside 3-point shooting.

“That’s the fun part of our job,” Olson said of Knoedler, who scored 10 points off the bench. “When you see young players learn new moves. The up-and-under twice in a row was awesome to see. She approaches the game the right way. Hazel and her are a good one-two punch in the post for us.”