Lady Chargers fend off late Columbine comeback

Emily Lachenmeyer doesn’t score points all that often for the Chatfield Lady Chargers. The sophomore had only scored in double figures twice previously this season. But her team-high 10 points were much needed at Columbine on Feb. 17.
Chatfield watched a 13-point fourth-quarter lead get shaved to two late in the fourth quarter before holding off a feisty Columbine squad 41-37 in the regular-season finale to sweep the season series. It’s the second consecutive year that Chatfield has swept the matchup after having lost the three previous meetings.
“We’ve always been huge rivals. The past few years we’ve won both of the games. It’s awesome,” Lachenmeyer said. “We’ve been pushing really hard and working in practice. It just feels really good.”
The Lady Chargers (11-12, 7-9 5A Jeffco League), who never trailed, got back-to-back 3-pointers from Kaylee Millar and Kelsi Lawrence during an 8-0 game-opening run that exploited Columbine’s 2-3 zone.
Yet, despite never taking the lead, Columbine never wilted.
The Lady Rebels (8-15, 5-11) scored the game’s next seven points to pull within a point late in the first quarter and nickled-and-dimed its way back late in the fourth after Chatfield had twice opened up a double-digit lead.
Most of that was because of the play of senior sharpshooter Ashley Morris, who scored a game-high 19 points. She scored Columbine’s first 11 points of the game, but deferred taking all of the credit.
“It’s a team effort. They all played great,” Morris said. “Paige Myer did a fantastic job of getting us back in the game. We just didn’t captialize on the opportunites, but we played a great game.”
Chatfield led 34-21 entering the fourth quarter before the Lady Rebels went on a 16-5 run behind the scoring of Morris, Myer and Carly Perry to pull within 39-37 with 1.9 seconds left. But Kristi Ohlschwager’s two free throws with 1.3 seconds left sealed the Lady Chargers’ victory.
Lawrence finished with eight points and Ohlschwager had six for Chatfield. Myer was Columbine’s next leading scorer with five points.