EVERGREEN — The Class 4A Jeffco League boys basketball title is heading back to Golden.
“It was a pride thing. We wanted it back,” Golden coach Erik Buehler said of winning the league. “We’ve won it three out of the last four seasons. Now we want to carry this over into the playoffs.”
The Demons, No. 4 in the final CHSAANow.com 4A boys basketball poll, won the conference title outright Thursday night with a 58-48 road victory against No. 9 Evergreen.
“All week we’ve had a little saying, ‘don’t share’. We wanted to keep it to ourselves this year,” Golden senior Adam Thistlewood said of finishing a game ahead of Valor Christian and two games above Evergreen in the conference standings.
Evergreen’s Jack Patterson, left, and Golden’s Jack Moore battle for the ball. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
The victory likely solidified a top-4 seed for Golden (20-3, 13-1 in league) heading to the 4A state tournament that begins next week.
“Evergreen is a great team and are going to go far in the playoffs. Playing them right before playoff was big for us,” Thistlewood said. “We can get ready for the intensity, the environment and playing against good players.”
The conference and regular-season finale for both teams was the second game of a varsity doubleheader. Players had to sit around awhile as the girls’ varsity game went three overtimes. The boys’ game didn’t start until 8:45 p.m.
When tipoff finally happened, Golden grabbed an early lead on Evergreen (18-5, 11-3). Senior Colin Mulligan had a great first quarter pouring in seven points to give the Demons a 18-9 lead after the first eight minutes.
However, Evergreen was riding a 6-game winning streak and kept hanging around. Senior Bridger Tenney drained a 3-pointer with 2:33 left in the third quarter that gave the Cougars’ a 39-38 lead. Tenney finished with 18 points and fellow senior Jack Patterson added 10 points.
Golden quickly responded with a driving layup by Thistlewood (18 points) and a 3-point play by Mulligan (18 points) to give the Demons back the lead.
Evergreen’s Bridger Tenney (10) had a team-high 18 points for the Cougars. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“Obviously, we didn’t play as well as we would have liked,” Evergreen coach Scott Haebe said. “We just seemed a step slow defensively and we really never got into a rhythm offensively.”
Golden junior Ilja Bubukin started the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to widen the lead to 46-39. The Demons’ defense took care of the rest holding the Cougars to just nine points in the final quarter.
“We have kind of taken the mantra at the end of the season at every possession on offense and defense is a 0-0 game,” Buehler said. “We just want to win every 0-0 battle. Having a senior-laded team they know when to slow it down, speed it up, control it and make the right play at the right time. It’s a lot easier on me.”
The Cougars nearly handed the Demons a loss in their first conference meeting on Jan. 24. A trio of shots in the final seconds didn’t fall for Evergreen as Golden escaped its gym with a 58-57 victory.
Golden will take an 11-game winning streak into the state tournament next week.
“They have taken on the challenge. They don’t want anything to get in their way,” Buehler said of his team that has overcome a lot this season.
Now the waiting game begins. The Colorado High School Activities Association will post brackets for the 48-team 4A state tournament Sunday, Feb. 18, on CHSAANow.com.
“We’ll get a first-round bye and have a week to get ready,” Haebe said of his Cougars.
Golden and Evergreen hope to get top-10 seeds for the Class 4A boys basketball state tournament. Brackets will post Sunday on CHSAANow.com. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)