HIGHLANDS RANCH — It’s probably the only public school, neighborhood rivalry in girls basketball that reaches across Colorado.
The Continental League that serves as home base for the two programs has produced the last 10 big-school titles, nine by the perennially ranked schools. The emotion is real. And another capacity crowd came out to watch.
As it was, Highlands Ranch, top-ranked in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A, held off host ThunderRidge 50-41 on Friday to clinch at least a tie for another league title and all but sealed the top seed in the playoff bracket that will be announced next weekend.
“All the hoopla surrounding it,” Falcons coach Caryn Ja-rocki said. “There’s a lot of it.”
Senior Shanti Smith said the Falcons had to gather themselves, herself included.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” she said. “(The Grizzlies are) big, our rivals. . . . It was closer than we thought, and it was really tough, but I’m really proud of my teammates and coaches.”
Smith was tight in the opening minutes. On her way to a team-high 12 points, she misfired on her first four shots, a couple of which weren’t close.
“You caught on to that, huh?” Smith asked with a laugh.
However, the Falcons (18-3 overall, 9-0 in league) eventually gained composure, received multiple contributions and ran to a double-figure lead late before squashing ThunderRidge’s final move.
Consecutive 3-pointers by junior reserve Lindsay Mallon close to halftime sparked the Falcons, who then outscored the still-stagnant Grizzlies 15-4 in the third. In overcoming 29 turnovers, their balanced wave of Mallon, Katelyn McDaniel, Michaela Neuhaus, Tierra Shumpert and Sendy Valles turned in defense from outside to down low as well as a 32-14 rebounding advantage, and created more scoring chances.
Conversely, No. 5 ThunderRidge (15-5, 6-3), which took a hit against Regis Jesuit on Tuesday, had several attempts roll off the rim, didn’t pick up the pace until late and failed to consistently contend inside.
“You have to finish,” Grizzlies coach Bill Bradley said, adding that his team’s effort and scheme were good, “but we needed one more rebound, one more basket, one more defensive stop. We played well, just not enough to win the ballgame.”
Highlands Ranch 8 14 15 13 — 50
ThunderRidge 7 11 4 19 — 41
Highlands Ranch — Li. Heap 0 0-0 0, McDaniel 2 0-0 4, Smith 6 0-0 12, Shumpert 3 3-5 9, Valles 4 0-0 8, Baker 1 0-0 2, Mallon 2 2-2 8, Neuhaus 3 0-0 7, Yates 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 5-7 50.
ThunderRidge — Needles 5 0-0 14, Jelniker 5 0-0 10, Riley 3 4-6 11, Peterson 1 0-1 2, Langas 1 0-0 2, Chase 0 0-0 0, Rusk 0 2-2 2, Koslosky 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 6-9 41.
3-point goals — Mallon 2, Neuhaus; Needles 4, Riley.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
