GOLDEN — The D’Evelyn girls basketball team’s name starts with the appropriate letter.
“D,” as in defense.
With a capital D.
“Definitely defense is first for us,” said D’Evelyn senior Madalyn Neely. “We rotate over so (the opponent) doesn’t know where we’re going to be, and we sometimes don’t know ourselves.”
Sand Creek knows Neely speaks the truth.
The Jaguars, top seeded in Class 4A’s Tracy Hill region, forced the Scorpions into 34 turnovers — 31 in the first three quarters — and rolled to a 52-36 Great 8 victory Saturday at Lockridge Arena.
“That’s what we do,” D’Evelyn coach Chris Olson said. “We press and run andto create a tempo that makes other teams uncomfortable. It’s worked so far.”
Indeed, defense has carried the Jaguars (22-3A) to the program’s first final four, where they’ll face another top seed in Pueblo South.
In fact, D’Evelyn had only advanced past the first round once, losing to Moffat County in the second round in 2009.
“This is a huge step for us,” said Neely, who led D’Evelyn’s offensive charge with 17 points.
“It’s fantastic, and the kids deserve it,” Olson added.
D’Evelyn forced 22 turnovers leading to 28 of its 37 points in the middle two quarters, where the game went from a 14-14 tie to a 42-27 lead for the Jaguars.
Actually, they built a 20-point advantage, 40-20, with 2:52 left in the third period, a margin that No. 2 seed Sand Creek (19-7) cut to eight, 44-36, with about 3 ½ minutes left in the game. The Jaguars went 0-for-4 with six turnovers during a scoreless stretch at the start of the fourth quarter.
D’Evelyn held Sand Creek’s top two scorers, Mikayla Reese (13.8 average) and Jessi Macedo (8.5) to 8 and 3 points, respectively. Reese hit two baskets early in the fourth quarter to help the Scorpions cut the deficit to 10 points “I was a little nervous,” Olson said of Sand Creek’s late charge. “We did the same thing against Delta (50-47 Sweet 16 win). We have a tendency to do this. It’s why I have no hair.”
