BOULDER — Carlie was beginning to rival “iCarly” in popularity, and Broomfield knew it.
That’s why, whenever ThunderRidge guard Carlie Needles had the basketball Thursday night, multiple Eagles were there to disrupt her.
The result was a comfortable 48-35 victory for Class 4A four-time defending state champion Broomfield, which advanced to Saturday’s championship game of the Fairview Festival against Denver East.
The 5A No. 4 Grizzlies landed in the consolation bracket.
Needles, who recently committed to Florida and entered with a 5A-best 26-point scoring average, was held to 15 points on 6-for-21 shooting.
“That’s the most frustrated I’ve seen her, because usually she tears people apart,” Broomfield center Bre Burgesser said.
Needles was constantly swarmed, and with a supporting cast not as strong as in recent seasons, ThunderRidge (3-1) often bogged down.
“We knew we probably wouldn’t be able to stop the Needles girl with one girl, so we used a trapping zone,” said Broomfield coach Mike Croell, whose team won its 28th straight game and is 113-3 since the start of the 2006-07 season.
The free-throw count made it abundantly clear which team was more physical — Broomfield shot 32 compared to eight for the Grizzlies.
The Eagles started three players 6-feet-2 or taller while the Grizzlies were bereft of a 6-footer.
“They played good defense and they were definitely tall, which kind of scared us a little bit,” Needles said.
“We didn’t do what we usually do to break a half-court trap and we couldn’t get any shots to fall.”
Needles said she expected the constant pressure after her sizzling start to the season.
“If they saw the box scores and saw what I was putting up, I’m pretty sure they said, ‘Don’t let her shoot,’ ” Needles said. “They played good ‘D,’ but I didn’t come ready to play today, and that’s my fault. I came out of the chute with a few layups, but we weren’t executing, I started to get a little frustrated.”
Broomfield hasn’t lost since the final of this tournament last year (Dec. 12, 2009, against Fairview).
“The first half was hard for us because we kept missing all of our layups and our free throws,” said Burgesser, who led the Eagles with 13 points. “But once we finally got in the flow of the game we, pulled ourselves together.”
Broomfield 14 8 11 15 — 48
ThunderRidge 4 11 8 12 — 35
Broomfield — Nehf 0 1-2 1, Prins 2 6-7 10, Zec 1 0-0 2, Medema 2 7-12 12, Burgesser 5 3-4 13, Wilber 3 2-3 8, Rynearson 0 1-2 1, Schreter 0 1-2 1. Totals 13 21-32 48.
ThunderRidge — Needles 6 0-0 15, Kaminsky 3 2-2 10, Chase 2 0-2 4, Rusk 1 2-2 5, Williams 0 0-0 0, Throop 0 0-0 0, Yoney 0 1-2 1.Totals 12 5-8 35.
3-point goals — Medmea; Needles 3, Kaminsky 2, Rusk.Fouled out — Zec, Needles, Williams. Technical fouls — none.Total fouls — Broomfield 16, ThunderRidge 24.
