Standley Lake boys basketball swamp Evergreen in 5A/4A Jeffco League action

WESTMINSTER — Standley Lake boys basketball team took a big step forward Wednesday night in its quest to claim its first league title in the program’s history.

The Gators stayed undefeated in the Class 5A/4A Jeffco League with a dominating 51-32 home victory against Evergreen. It was a big hurdle for Standley Lake (11-6, 4-0 in league) to clear with the Cougars (12-6, 3-2) in the mix near the top of the conference standings.

“We aren’t looking past anyone,” Standley Lake coach Tyson Schrecengost said. “It’s a great league with well-coached teams. Game plans are always to be executed. We know we need to keep our focus on the next one against Conifer.”

Green Mountain (15-4, 5-0) are atop the league standings with Golden (15-4, 4-1) one-game back in the loss column. However, Golden’s lone conference loss came to Evergreen a few weeks ago.

Standley Lake’s final three games of the regular season against D’Evelyn, Green Mountain and Golden will determine the conference champion. However, the Gators’ focus is clearly on what is right in front of them.

“We really aren’t looking past anyone,” said Standley Lake junior Asher Serlen with games against Conifer, Aurora Central and Littleton — combined record of 18-36— coming up for the Gators. “We are excited for those last three games on our schedule. We are preparing for every single game.”

Serlen got to prepare Wednesday for the challenge of facing Evergreen junior Logan McCanna, another elite big man in the league. The pair of 6-foot-8 post players went head-to-head.

“We were really excited for it. He is a great big,” Serlen said of the match-up against McCanna. “I honestly didn’t get much time against him after he fouled out early, but it was a good time.”

While Serlen poured in a game-high 17 points, McCanna was limited to just 3 points and fouled out early in the fourth quarter.

“When you see guys in foul trouble you always want to go at them,” Serlen said. “Draw the fouls and take it to them for the rest of the game. I thought we did a good job of doing that tonight.”

Standley Lake pounded the ball inside with Serlen and senior Vaughn Locke. Locke finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds to complement Serlen.

“We are sharing the ball with each other and getting wide-open looking under the basket all the time,” said Serlen after the Gators were 20-for-32 from the field (63 percent) with recording 19 assists on the 20 made baskets against the Cougars.

Evergreen suffered its third straight loss. Junior Xavier Spungin had a team-high 10 points for the Cougars, who were held to a season-low 32 points.

“Guys really bought in defensively,” Coach Schrecengost said about Evergreen scoring just 3 points in the second quarter as the Gators built a 29-12 halftime lead. “We’ve been talking a lot about it. That is going to be our success this season. It has always been a staple of Gator Basketball.”

Coach Schrecengost’s son, Titus, led the defensive pressure for the Gators with 6 steals to go along with his 6 points and 5 assists. Senior Gage Pommer had 9 points, including a pair of 3-pointers for Standley Lake.

Standley Lake hosts Conifer (8-10, 2-3) at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, and then turns around the following day with a non-league road game against Aurora Central at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Evergreen will attempt to end its 3-game losing streak on the road against Dakota Ridge at 6:30 p.m. Friday night.