A defender in her face, and Grandview trailing by one in the fourth quarter, Marya Hudgins looked toward the rim and didn’t hesitate.
Hudgins rose up and lofted a high-arcing 3-point shot that hit nothing but net, one of three fourth-quarter 3-pointers for the sophomore guard as the No. 4 Wolves rallied to beat top seed Valor Christian 49-42 in Thursday night’s Final Four showdown at Denver Coliseum.
“I was just shooting it and they were going in,” said Hudgins. “I was really feeling it.”
Indeed, the 6-foot transfer from Georgia couldn’t miss from deep against Valor, sinking all five of her 3-point attempts en route to a 17-point night. Six-foot-7 post Lauren Betts added a game-high 21 points, with 10 coming in the third quarter to help Grandview pull within one entering the fourth.
Hudgins put Grandview over the top after that with her three 3s in the final frame, the first of which gave the Wolves their first lead since going up 2-0 early in the first quarter.
“We just started to calm down a little bit and know, ‘Hey, we got this, and it’s our game and we just got to take over,'” Hudgins said of the team’s rally from down seven with 5:40 left in the third quarter.
Valor’s pressure defense and dogged ball denial of Betts forced Grandview into several turnovers early as the Eagles built a 20-17 halftime lead. And in a battle of two of the state’s best post players, Valor sophomore Raegan Beers battled Betts with 14 points and 15 rebounds.
It wasn’t enough, however, for Valor (25-2). Betts blocked Beers six times and Grandview (24-3) clinched a return trip to the 5A championship and a rematch with Cherry Creek.
“I’m so excited,” Hudgins said. “I won a state championship (in Georgia), and I’m really excited to be back in it and hoping to win another one.”
Cherry Creek 55, Highlands Ranch 42. Thanks to 20 points from forward Calli Clark, the Class 5A title game Saturday will be a rematch of the 2019 championship.
The Falcons (21-6) took a 7-4 lead three-and-a-half minutes into the game on Taylor Ray’s trey before the Bruins went on a 12-0 run to close out the period. The Creek surge was punctuated by five points from guard Jana VanGytenbeek and a Charley Gordon trey with 1:21 left in the frame that put the bracketap No. 2 seed up 16-7.
With Creek leading 20-14, Clark scored on three straight Bruins possessions, including a layup with 3:20 until halftime that extended Creek’s lead to double digits for the first time, 27-16.
Grandview and the Bruins (25-2) split their two meetings earlier this season, with the Wolves prevailing on Jan. 24 at Creek, 65-40, and Creek returning the favor in Aurora on Feb. 19, 53-42.
“They are a really good team obviously and we’ve played theme twice and we know a lot about each other,” Clark said. “We know them they know us, it’s a familiar game to us, so I think for Saturday we’re just going to focus on playing our game and controlling what we can control and playing our hardest.”
