All season, and again on Friday, the Green Mountain boys basketball team proved it knew how to take an early punch and turn it into a raised hand at the end.
The Rams started the winter 4-7 before star senior Simon Lunsford returned to the lineup at midseason from a broken leg to get them in a groove. And the Rams started Friday in a 17-3 hole before Lunsford and fellow sharpshooter Sam Mielenz both caught fire.
As a result, No. 16 Green Mountain rallied to a 43-40 victory over No. 25 Sand Creek in the Class 5A Great 8 on Friday at the Denver Coliseum, propelling the Rams into their first Final 4 in 31 years. Lunsford had 16 points, and the sophomore Mielenz led all scorers with 17.
“Sand Creek was just kicking the crap out of us early,” Green Mountain head coach Mike Puccio said. “They were impacting us. It wasn’t that we weren’t ready. We just needed to settle in, feel the punch and keep fighting back.
“When you have guys like (Lunsford and Mielenz), one on each side, and you run the floor, you can get back in games quick. Credit to our guys for not panicking.”
The last time Green Mountain made the Great 8, in 2000, Puccio was a senior guard for the team. The Rams’ eighth-year boss is big on honoring the history of the program, which won a 3A title in 1980 and a 5A crown in 1992. The Rams also made appearances in the championship games in ’91 and ’94.
This season Puccio had his team start wearing the same gold-and-black striped warmup pants that the 1980 championship squad wore. They also warm up with a black basketball, an homage to the 1992 title team that did the same thing.
“We live in their legacy,” a breathless Lunsford said, still dripping from a water-bottle shower after the win. “We’re just trying to fight for those past championship teams, and add to what they accomplished.”
Green Mountain waited nearly six minutes for its first points on Friday, when Lunsford’s 3 finally put the Rams on the board after going down 12-0. Sand Creek continued to control the game early in the second quarter, but then Green Mountain finished the half on a 16-3 run to cut the deficit to 20-19 heading into the locker rooms.
After a back-and-forth third, the Scorpions still led, 33-31. But the Rams proved to be the finisher, with both Mielenz and Lunsford hitting a number of clutch shots down the stretch. Junior Jake Swanson’s five total points also proved critical.
“At the end of the day, it’s about who’s tougher, and that’s who is going to come out with a win,” Mielenz said. “That’s what happened today.”
Green Mountain’s triumph over Sand Creek came after the Rams upset No. 1 Lutheran on the road earlier this week. Puccio said the injury to Lunsford, which happened in the quarterfinal football game when he was playing quarterback, was a blessing in disguise for the Rams.
Lunsford, a right-handed pitcher committed to play baseball at Colorado Mesa, is a three-sport star at Green Mountain.
“He’s our emotional leader, his teammates’ boy off the court, the leader on the court; he’s my extension of a voice on the court,” Puccio said. “Players like him don’t come around very often. With him, we’re a different seed. But the unique part about going through that is these other guys got experience. They couldn’t rely on him. It made us better for now, because I weirdly think that if he doesn’t get hurt, I don’t know what this looks like. I don’t know if we’re here.”
With the Green Mountain girls’ upset of two-time defending champion Roosevelt earlier in the morning, the Rams will be doing a Final 4 double-dip next week, back at the Coliseum. The Green Mountain boys (17-9) take on the winner of No. 4 Montrose vs. No. 21 Falcon.
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