After making program history with its first state championship last year, Evergreen girls basketball is now one win away from a repeat.
The No. 6 Cougars (25-2) wore down No. 15 Widefield (21-6) for a 48-32 win in the Class 4A Final Four at the Denver Coliseum, as Evergreen capitalized on a balanced scoring effort and stingy defense to set up Saturday’s championship rematch against Pueblo South.
Widefield flashed its grit in a back-and-forth first half in which Evergreen controlled, but did not dominate, the tempo.
Junior guard Aaliyah Ricketts and the Gladiators, who upset Golden on the road in the Great 8, answered just about every Cougars run as Evergreen took a 21-16 lead into the locker room.
Evergreen then came out in the third and extended its lead, as senior guard Kristina Schreiber and junior forward Claudia Dillon led the Cougars’ offensive charge while the play of Widefield senior wing Charisse Fairley — who finished with a game-high 17 points — kept the Gladiators in the game heading into the fourth.
The Jeffco League champions then stepped on the gas in the final frame, never allowing Widefield to get back within single digits as the Gladiators struggled to find any offensive flow. With the win, Evergreen makes its third straight title appearance, as the Cougars lost to Valor Christian in 2016 at CU.
Schreiber paced the Cougars with 16 points, while Dillon chipped in nine and senior Baylee Galan-Browne had eight.
