Green Mountain girls basketball rolls past Evergreen for 16th straight win

LAKEWOOD — What is looming on the horizon is soon to be in focus for Green Mountain girls basketball team.

The Class 5A/4A/3A Jeffco League title will be determined over the next few weeks, likely in showdowns on Green Mountain’s home court against D’Evelyn (Feb. 6) and Standley Lake (Feb. 16).

“That’s the game we are looking forward to,” Green Mountain junior Addie Evans said of the showdown against Standley Lake in the final game of the regular season. “We are building up to that game. Every game we look to see what Standley Lake did and how many they beat this team by. We compare our scores against the same teams they’ve played.”

The Rams (18-1, 5-0) have four conference games remaining before the end of the regular season. Green Mountain has won its first five league games on average of a tick above a 47-point margin of victory. 

It was more of the same Saturday afternoon with the Rams putting it to Evergreen 67-20 to run Green Mountain’s current winning streak to 16 games.

“The mindset we’ve had with them all year is just 1-0. Take it a day at a time,” Green Mountain coach Matteo Busnardo said thinking about what is ahead for the Rams. “We don’t want to look too far ahead. We’ll enjoy this today and tonight we’ll start to prep for Littleton and D’Evelyn next week.”

Green Mountain didn’t have much trouble with Evergreen (6-11, 1-3) despite the rare 1 p.m. tipoff on a Saturday. Senior Kantyn Pearson and sophomore Grace Herrig got the Rams going combining for 14 points in the first quarter.

Pearson hit a pair of 3 pointers as she scored all of her 8 points in the first quarter. Herrig dominated the inside offensively to the tune of 15 points in the first half. The lefty also held Evergreen’s leading scorer — junior Elle Buenning — to 9 points.

“Elle is a handful. She is one of the better players in the league for sure,” Busnardo said of Buenning. “She is super physical and someone that is hard to contain, but I think we did a good job on her today.”

Green Mountain also did a good job defensively on Evergreen’s other 6-footer — senior Avery Coppin. 

“When we did our scouting report, watching film and prepping for them we saw that Elle and Avery are two good bigs. They are taller than we are,” Busnardo said. “In practice we emphasized being physical and using zone (defense) if we went to it.”

Evans had the hot hand for the Rams in the second quarter pouring in a trio of 3-pointers as Green Mountain opened up a 40-9 lead at halftime.

“The past few games I’ve just been feeling the shots,” said Evans, who finished with a game-high 16 points, including four 3-pointers. “We are scrimmaging non-stop. We are making our practices really, really hard.”

Evans had a season-high 19 points on Green Mountain’s 81-14 victory over Pomona on Jan. 28.

Green Mountain junior Ella Cockrum finished off the solid performance by the Rams with a 12-point third quarter to allow Busnardo to have his starters sit the bench for the fourth quarter.

The Rams are currently on pace to break its 24-game win mark for the season. Green Mountain has reached 24 wins during last year’s 2024-25 season, along with hitting 24-win mark in 2021-22 and 2019-2020.

“This one would be special because Kantyn and Peyton were my first class. This is my fourth year here, so they were freshmen when I got here,” said Busnardo of the Rams chasing after the season win total mark. “The work that they have put in and the standard that they have set has trickled down for the younger ones.”

If the Rams can get wins over Littleton, D’Evelyn and Conifer in the next few weeks the Monday, Feb. 16 match-up against Standley Lake (13-2, 3-0) would likely determine the conference champion.

“I think everyone is so excited about that game, especially it being a (varsity) doubleheader with the boys,” Evans said. “It’s going to be such a big game for us.”