GOLDEN — The ice pack in Cassie Lambrecht’s hand was both a reward and badge of honor.
The petite Golden guard was pushed around, knocked down and even stepped on a bit Saturday by the Rifle Bears in their Class 4A second-round girls basketball playoff game.
Lambrecht, however, got up each time and put away the pesky Bears by scoring 17 of her game-high 33 points from the free-throw line as the top-seeded Demons held on for a 75-69 victory.
“It’s definitely a contact sport,” said Lambrecht, who scored 25 points in the second half. “Free throws win and lose games, and we definitely stepped up and got the win.”
The win was the 15th straight for the Demons (20-4), who advanced in the Tracy Hill Region to face fourth-seeded Northridge (19-5) on Friday in the Sweet 16.
The Demons received no points off their bench but had four starters score in double figures, thanks to 10 3-pointers. Katja Jacobs and Samantha Neal scored 15 apiece and Emily Wareham had 10 points and grabbed seven of her eight rebounds after halftime to give the Jeffco champions a vital inside presence.
“When the second half came, I just focused on rebounding,” Wareham said. “I said, ‘I have to get the rebound before we can do anything else.’ ”
The eighth-seeded Bears (13-11) outrebounded the Demons 46-29 and refused to go away, despite trailing by 15 late in the third quarter.
“We just come to play and we play our hardest every game,” Rifle senior Megan McWilliams said.
McWilliams scored 20 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and freshman Ciara Euler came off the bench for 16 points and seven boards.
Rifle, a quarterfinalist a year ago, committed 30 turnovers, compared with just 17 by the Demons.
The game had seven lead changes.
Rifle 18 9 19 23 — 69
Golden 16 19 18 22 — 75
Rifle — Snyder 3 0-0 7, Webb 1 1-2 3, McWilliams 8 2-4 20, Skinner 1 0-0 3, Samson 3 2-2 9, Pyle 2 0-2 4, Cordova 3 0-0 7, Euler 6 3-6 16. Totals 27 8-16 69.
Golden — Lambrecht 7 17-24 33, Stolte 1 0-0 2, Jacobs 5 2-3 15, Neal 5 0-2 15, Wareham 5 0-4 10, Hanggi 0 0-3 0, Seery 0 0-0 0, Osbaugh 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 19-36 75.
3-point goals — McWilliams 2, Snyder, Skinner, Samson, Cordova, Euler; Neal 5, Jacobs 3, Lambrecht 2. Total fouls — Rifle 24, Golden 18. Fouled out — Webb, Euler; Stolte. Technical fouls — None.
