BOULDER — Instead of an expected semifinal showdown between the two southern Denver-metropolitan programs that have dominated big-school girls basketball since 1999, it turned out to be more like a heavy preseason favorite having its way with an also-ran in an opener back in November.
Two-time defending Class 5A champion Highlands Ranch had no trouble in thumping city and Continental League rival ThunderRidge 68-46 on Wednesday night at the Coors Events Center. In improving to 24-3 on the season, the top-seeded Falcons, ranked No. 7 nationally by USA Today, are a championship game victory away from further cementing their undisputed dominance since girls basketball was sanctioned in Colorado in 1976.
“They were a machine,” said Grizzlies coach Bill Bradley, who knows a little about high-caliber girls play. “They certainly looked like the seventh- ranked team in the country tonight.”
And it’s not over — if the Falcons win the 5A championship Friday against Regis, which they routed 74-49 early last month, it would be their sixth title in nine years.
“We didn’t want to go home,” Falcons senior forward Alyssa Fressle said. “We’re here to win a championship.”
ThunderRidge, which finished 19-8, won the three previous titles before Highlands Ranch’s past two and had lost by just seven points to the Falcons in the regular season (after squandering a 47-39 lead in the fourth quarter).
But they were no match for the Falcons, who stepped up their defensive pressure — particularly on the perimeter — owned the backboards (39-28) and forced transition to break it open. ThunderRidge tied the game at seven late in the first quarter, then was run off the floor on the way to finishing with 34 turnovers.
“That was our plan,” Falcons coach Caryn Jarocki said of extending her defense. “I saw that (the Grizzlies’ Rachel) Messer hit five or six 3-pointers the last game and it scared the daylights out of me . . . the last time we did not play up-in-your face defense.”
It was indicative of the game — the Falcons’ have the senior leadership, the Grizzlies are younger and inexperienced, and it showed.
Bradley, who praised his players’ effort and probably got them further along than even he had hoped, admitted it: “We were timid.”
Highlands Ranch quickly ran to the kill. Guard Jade Davis made six of her first eight shots and 11 of her game-high 21 points came in the second quarter, when the Falcons’ bulge began to grow. Over 16 minutes, they outscored cold-shooting ThunderRidge (16-of-46 for the game) 36-16 and even their 20 turnovers for the game weren’t a factor.
Fressle, recently named Colorado’s Gatorade player of the year, scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Meagan Fulps added 11 points. For ThunderRidge, Brooke Jelniker scored 17 points.
Jarocki acknowledged her team is where it needs to be, “but now we’re asking for one more thing.”
