Golden senior Sydney Prey (4) is surrounded by a trio of Evergreen defenders. Prey hit the game-winning 3-pointer to lift the Demons over the Cougars. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
EVERGREEN — Golden’s girls basketball team did the rest of the Class 4A Jeffco League a favor Friday night
Evergreen, No. 2 in the latest CHSAANow.com 4A girls rankings, was threatening to make it a one-team race for the conference title when the Cougars hosted the No. 5 Demons. Evergreen could have taken a 2-game lead over the 4A Jeffco field, but Golden (13-2, 5-1 in Jeffco) was able to reel the Cougars (12-1, 4-1) back to the pack with a dramatic 43-41 victory.
“It feels pretty good. It felt good to come out and play against (Evergreen) and pull it off tonight,” said Golden junior Makena Prey, who had a game-high 17 points. “We knew Evergreen was going to be good. We just prepared for it and did our best out there.”
Golden’s Makena Prey (32) dumps a pass over Evergreen’s Claudia Dillon. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Makena’s older sister — Sydney Prey — hit the eventual game-winning shot. The Demons trailed 41-40 with under a minute to play after a pair of free throws by Evergreen junior Hannah Kennedy. However, Golden worked the ball around on a possession with the clock ticking down and Sydney found herself open from beyond the arc.
“I was wide-open so I just took it and made it,” said Sydney, who had just six points on the night after coming in averaging more than 13 points per game. “I knew I had to make up for some turnovers earlier on. I needed to make it for my team.”
Evergreen had a pair of chances to tie the game in the final seconds. Sophomore Claudia Dillon put up a shot in the paint with 8 seconds to play, but the shot didn’t fall.
Sydney could have iced the game at the free-throw line with 6 seconds left on the clock, but she missed the front-end of a one-and-one. Evergreen grabbed the rebound but weren’t able to get off a shot before the buzzer went off.
“No one was really making outside shots,” Evergreen coach Amy Bahl said of the game where the Cougars didn’t make a single 3-pointer and the Demons had just two 3-pointers. “Then that was the one that fell that mattered the most. It was a good shot.”
The league showdown featured the anticipated match-up between two of the premier post players in 4A — Makena (19 points, 11.4 rebounds per game) and Dillon (14.1 points, 10.9 rebounds per game). Dillon helped the Cougars get out to an early 8-1 lead in the first quarter, but the tide changed when she picked up her second foul with just under two minutes to play in the first quarter.
Evergreen’s Claudia Dillon (34) puts a shot up against Golden junior Abby Garnett. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Dillon finished with 14 points, despite the early foul trouble and the Demons double-teaming the 6-foot-2 sophomore for the majority of the night.
“Our conference is really good this year and there has been a lot of upsets already,” Dillon said looking forward. “We’ll get Golden again and be ready.”
There will be one more league match-up between the Cougars and Demons. The two battle on Golden’s home court Feb. 14.
Evergreen swept the two meetings last season against the Demons as the Cougars went on to advance to the 4A title game for the first time in the program’s history in 2016.
Next up for Golden is a home game against No. 6 D’Evelyn (12-3, 4-2) on Wednesday, Jan. 25. The Jaguars defeated Green Mountain by 13 points on Friday night. The Rams were coming off an upset victory against Evergreen on Wednesday night.
“I knew the girls were going to bounce back. They were very focused yesterday going into practice,” Golden coach Greg Bolding said. “I think they almost looked past Green Mountain to this game. In Jeffco you can’t look past anybody, especially now.”
Sydney talked about how critical it was to hand Evergreen its first loss of the season and prevent Golden from dropping a second straight league game.
“We were coming off that terrible loss on Wednesday. We were fired up and angry,” Sydney said. “We knew we had to make a statement that we are still in the running for league (title).”
Evergreen continues its league play at home against Standley Lake on Wednesday next week.
“We’ll take this as an experience to learn from and get better from it,” Bahl said. “Of course you don’t want to lose, but if you can take something from this game and use it in the future to benefit you that will help us out.”
Evergreen senior Keigan Drysdale, right, attempts to dribble past Golden senior Sydney Prey during the top-5 4A girls hoops showdown. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)