In a tight basketball game, sometimes one player is all it takes to break it open.
Brian Hunt was that player for Green Mountain on Friday, Jan. 25, at Dakota Ridge High School. The junior guard led the Rams (9-5, 2-1 in the Class 5A Jeffco League) in a 59-43 win over Dakota Ridge.
Hunt scored 26 points, including 12 in the second quarter, to give the Rams more than enough breathing room against their conference rival.
“I wanted to play hard,” Hunt said. “I was able step up today for our team. I played real well.”
Senior Ryan Garbarino added 10 points for Green Mountain.
Junior Cameron Pritchett led Dakota Ridge (6-10, 0-3) in scoring with 14 points, and senior Andy McDonnell contributed with 10 points.
Green Mountain got off to a rough start converting on just one of its first 11 field goal attempts en route to falling behind 12-3. Then the Rams turned it around by causing the Eagles to miss six consecutive field goal attempts to give their offense a chance to get back in rhythm. It did by going on a 10-0 run to take a 13-12 lead.
“It doesn’t seem to matter what happens early in the game,” Green Mountain coach Rudy Martin said. “Those big early leads never seem to last too long, they don’t mean too much. I wasn’t very concerned at the time.”
In the second quarter, Hunt couldn’t be stopped scoring 12 points to help Green Mountain outscore Dakota Ridge 17-4 in the quarter to take a 27-16 lead going into halftime.
Holding a 10-point lead at 35-25 in the third quarter, Hunt came through with a bucket, and then converted a 3-pointer after a Dakota Ridge free throw to propel Green Mountain to a 40-26 lead.
After Dakota Ridge closed to within nine points at 40-31, the Rams went on a 12-2 run thanks to eight points by Garbarino to put the game on ice.
“We just played our game throughout,” Hunt said. “This is a big win for us. It shows we can go anywhere and beat anyone at any time.”
Green Mountain faced some early adversity when it lost a hard-fought league opener to Lakewood on Jan. 18. Since then the Rams have won two consecutive games and are looking to be contenders in a 5A Jeffco League where there do not appear to be any dominant teams.
The Rams were scheduled to host Columbine (5-10, 1-1) on Wednesday, Jan. 30, after press deadline.
“I believe we have a great chance of winning league,” Hunt said. “The league is a little down this year and we’re playing better.”
In order for the Rams to compete for a league title, Martin knows that they need to improve on certain fundamentals such as their 37 percent shooting performance in their win over Dakota Ridge.
“We’ve been shooting the ball poorly especially on the road,” Martin said. “We’ve got to shoot the ball better. But if we don’t then our defense can play well. That’s what we did tonight.”
WHAT’S NEXT
Green Mountain has a break from conference play when it hits the road to face Class 4A Jeffco League title contender D’Evelyn at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, at D’Evelyn High School.