Broomfield – Horizon made it more difficult than it had to be.
In a showdown between two of the best teams in the state, no matter the classification, the Hawks’ girls basketball team had a victory sown up in the final seconds but nearly gave it away. In the end, the free throws dropped and the buzzer finally sounded as Horizon held off Broomfield 51-48 on Friday night in front of a raucous crowd at the Eagles’ gym.
Horizon (2-1), No. 2 in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A poll, may still have been trying to shake off the cobwebs after a 20-point loss to Regis the night before, and a pair of Hawks fouls in the final 6.2 seconds of play nearly put another check in their “L” column.
“We talked about that in the locker room. We gave them so many opportunities. It was stupid of us to be fouling,” Horizon guard Nikki Trujillo said. “We should have beat them at least by 12. We had a lot of missed free throws, and we missed a lot of close shots. We could have beat them by a lot more.”
Horizon took a 50-45 lead on a lay-in by Hannah Tuomi, but the Hawks fouled Katie Calderwood as she came up the court. Calderwood missed both free throws, but Chaundra Sewell pulled down the rebound and was sent to the line. She sunk both, the Eagles managed to get the ball back and Calderwood was fouled shooting a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds remaining.
She made the first, missed the second and missed the third attempt on purpose. The ball bounced out to Caitlan Stem, who could not beat the buzzer with her game-tying try.
“You look at how many free throws we missed and how many turnovers we had, and we still realistically had a decent shot to win it at the end,” Broomfield coach Mike Croell said. “There is no shame in losing to a team like that.”
For Broomfield (1-1), No. 1 in the 4A poll, Calderwood finished with a team-high 15 points and 11 rebounds, the 6-foot-6 Anna Prins scored 11 and Sewell had 10 more.
Trujillo led Horizon, state runner-up the past two seasons, with 19 points, and Tuomi had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
After a close first quarter, the Hawks led the rest of the way.
“For us to come out after last night’s loss and come and beat this team, it shows a lot of our character,” Trujillo said.
Horizon 14 13 13 11 – 51
Broomfield 10 13 10 15 – 48
Horizon – Tuomi 5 3-6 13, Medina 0 2-4 2, Trujillo 7 2-3 19, Lambert 2 0-0 2, Herz 2 3-4 7, Dillon 1 2-2 4, Neises 0 0-0 0, Barringer 1 2-2 4. Totals 18 14-21 51.
Broomfield – Prins 4 3-6 11, Calderwood 3 8-16 15, Rhodes 1 0-1 2, Stem 1 1-2 4, Sewell 3 4-4 10, Snow 2 0-0 4, Biegner 0 2-4 2, Fankell 0 0-0 0, Davies 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 18-33 48.
3-point goals – Trujillo 3; Calderwood, Stem. Team fouls – Horizon 24; Broomfield 17. Fouled out – Dillon. Technicals – None.
