GOLDEN — Alan Acevedo is making his mark on the hardwood during his freshman campaign at Golden High School.
Wednesday night was another example of how key the freshman has been for the Demons — No. 9 in the CHSAANow.com Class 4A boys basketball rankings. Acevedo came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points and grab seven rebounds in Golden’s 58-53 home victory over D’Evelyn.
Golden freshman Alan Acevedo (30) goes up strong against D’Evelyn senior Sandy Dinegar (0) on Wednesday night. Acevedo had a game-high 22 points off the bench in the Demons’ 5-point win. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“I just want help the team,” Acevedo said. “I don’t really care about points. I care about the family and team.”
The victory kept Golden (11-6, 5-1) atop the 4A Jeffco League standings with rival Wheat Ridge (9-6, 5-1). Green Mountain (11-4, 4-2) is one game back. D’Evelyn (7-10, 3-3) is still within striking distance, but Jaguars’ coach Dan Zinn knows getting better and preparing for the playoffs is a primary focus.
“We are still going to battle every game and see where the chips fall,” Zinn said of the league title. “But at the same time we know there is a state tournament that we will be apart of and we want to get ready for that as well.”
D’Evelyn held a 29-28 halftime lead on the road against Golden, but the Demons turned the tide in the third quarter. After 15 points in the first half, Acevedo stayed hot. The freshman’s 3-pointer with 2:30 left in the third quarter gave Golden the lead for good at 38-37.
A 14–3 run extend the lead to double-digits midway through the fourth quarter.
“Second half we talked about just keeping our guy in front of us and play some good half-court man defense,” Golden coach Lou Vullo said. “We picked it up with our energy when we starting playing our 1-3-1 and trapping them at half-court. I think that is when we turned it around a little bit.”
Senior Ben McLaughlin hit a big 3-pointer during the Demons’ run in the fourth quarter. Fellow senior Jack Anderson had a field goal and went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to reach 10 points on the night.
“We feel like we are deep,” Vullo said of his team that had eight players score on the night. “If someone isn’t producing one night someone else will step in and help us out. We are fortunate to have that.”
D’Evelyn senior Sam Belmonte (4) tries to work inside on Golden freshman Alan Acevedo and senior Kevin Mulligan. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
D’Evelyn senior Sandy Dinegar (11 points) and junior Kase Sundarapura (10 points) were he lone Jaguars to reach double-digit points in the loss.
“Our defensively intensity was there all night,” Zinn said. “Our energy was there, but when you can’t make baskets it is tough to win basketball games.”
Wednesday night marked the midway-point through 4A Jeffco League play. All seven teams in the competitive conference have played six of the dozen league games on the schedule. Going into Wednesday’s action, only Standley Lake was outside the top-48 in RPI that qualify for the state tournament.
“This league is tough. We play Littleton on Friday and they are a scary team,” Vullo said. “At the end of the day there could be five of us who go to the state tournament.”
Golden has road games coming up against Littleton (Friday, Jan. 31) and Standley Lake (Feb. 5) before heading into the home stretch of conference play.
D’Evelyn remains on the road with games against Evergreen (Friday, Jan. 31) and Green Mountain (Feb. 5).
Golden senior Ben McLaughlin (2) dribbles in front of the D’Evelyn bench and junior Luke Kjellsen (43) during the first half Wednesday night during the Class 4A Jeffco League game. (Dennis Pleuss/ Jeffco Athletics)