The Evergreen High School boys basketball team visited Widefield High School in Colorado Springs Feb. 23 for its matchup in the first round of the 4A State Tournament. Coach Hal Farmwald and the team was looking to put an end to the string of three straight first-round tourney exits for EHS.
But that was not to be as the Cougars lost 42-35, ending the season at 12-11 overall and 9-6 in Jeffco conference play.
Behind six first quarter points from senior Zach Cothran, who finished with a game-high 15 points, Evergreen jumped out to a 10-8 first quarter lead and seemed to have the answer to Widefield’s length and athleticism.
However, after an early second quarter time-out, the Gladiators came out with a designed play that produced an alley-oop dunk for their big man TJ Coleman and ignited the home crowd. Shaken but undeterred, the Cougars rallied and received a late shot in the arm with a three from junior Luke Killian to take a slim 19-18 lead into half-time.
The third quarter saw both teams making slight adjustments to their defensive schemas with EHS moving away from the 1-2-2 in an attempt to further clog the lane and prevent additional rim-play from Coleman. The idea worked but the Cougars still found themselves down 29-27 going into the final quarter.
The final quarter captured the essence of high-school basketball with the band blaring, the home crowd cheering and a frantic back-and-forth pace creating a sense of chaos. Senior Jameson Davis paced the Cougars in the fourth quarter with four points contributing to his monster double/double of 10 points and 15 rebounds in what would be the final game of his career.