LITTLETON — Adaeze Obinnah picked the right night to have the best defensive game of her season.
Obinnah, a 6-foot-1 junior at Grandview, was a powerful presence inside, blocking five shots and grabbing 11 rebounds — both season highs. She also had a team-high 15 points as Sharon Wilch Region third-seeded Grandview held off a late rally to defeat No. 2 Heritage 60-53 and move to the Class 5A girls Great 8.
“We felt like they were going to try to attack,” Grandview coach Josh Ulitzky said. “We knew that (Obinnah) would be able to help.”
Obinnah scattered her five blocks throughout the game, and changed or deterred countless other shots. Asked if it was a typical defensive performance, Obinnah laughed.
“Actually,” she said, “no.”
Offensively, each of Obinnah’s 15 points seemed huge. She set the tone by quickly scoring her team’s first four points. Later, her putback midway through the third quarter, followed by two free throws, gave Grandview (20-5) its largest lead of the game at 40-24 — and, at that point, things seemed to be out of reach.
They weren’t. Heritage (18-7) stormed back with a 14-2 run that spanned the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters to cut the lead to 42-38 with 5½ minutes remaining.
“They started getting stops, and they were getting good shots, and we were like, ‘Oh, no!’ We were freaking out a little bit,” Obinnah said.
But when Grandview’s Natalie Halbleib and Natasha Edge hit back-to-back 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to end the run, the Wolves stomped out any momentum Heritage had gathered.
The Eagles twice narrowed the gap to five points as time dwindled, but Obinnah’s inside buckets and four free throws from Katie Cunningham sealed it.
Cunningham finished with 10 points, but her impact, like Obinnah’s, was on defense. The sophomore had the tall task of guarding Heritage’s CU-bound star Lauren Huggins.
“We wanted to limit every touch we could get on (Huggins),” Ulitzky said.
With the help of a near-constant double-team, Cunningham held Huggins to just nine points.
"That kid is just phenomenal," Ulitzky said of Cunningham. "Huge effort on Katie’s part."
Mary Cavanaugh led Heritage with 18 points, including three 3-point shots in the fourth quarter.
Grandview will play defending champion Highlands Ranch in the next round. The Falcons made quick work of Fossil Ridge, 74-36, on Wednesday night.
Grandview: 19 14 7 20 — 60
Heritage: 8 14 11 20 — 53
Grandview: Genovese 3 0-1 8, Kemp 4 0-0 9, Edge 3 2-2 10, Cunningham 2 6-6 10, Obinnah 6 3-7 15, Olsen 1 0-0 2, Halbleib 2 0-0 6, Lanier 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 11-16 60.
Heritage: Gutierrez 3 5-8 11, Cavanaugh 4 4-4 16, Ikard 3 0-0 7, Huggins 4 0-0 9, Lowthian 3 0-0 6, Schulze 0 0-0 0, Bulba 0 0-0 0, Young 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 9-12 53.
3-pt. goals: Genovese 2, Kemp, Edge 2, Halbeib 2; Cavanaugh 4, Ikard, Huggins.
Ryan Casey: 303-954-1983 or rcasey@denverpost.com
