The final two weeks of the 2021-22 Colorado high school basketball season are upon us, with the Class 4A and 5A brackets down to the Sweet 16 and the 32-team brackets revealed in Class 3A.
Champions will be crowned for boys and girls in all five classifications in less than 14 days. Here’s 16 thoughts as we embark on arguably the best week on the Colorado prep basketball calendar:
Mullen’s Cinderella run. The lowest remaining seed in any of the 4A and 5A brackets? That would be the 46th-seeded Mullen boys (10-14), who won their last two regular-season games to get into the 5A tournament, then knocked off (59-38) and (61-46) in succession to set up a Sweet 16 visit to No. 3 Chaparral.
No pumpkin here. The other squad still sporting glass slippers? The 4A Severance girls, who stunned No. 4 seed George Washington, 53-50, for the program’s first Sweet 16 bid. The No. 29 Silver Knights (11-14) claimed their first playoff win last Tuesday (74-43, vs. Golden), then held the Denver Prep League champs to 28.3% shooting with 18 turnovers.
Chasing perfection, I. Pueblo South (24-0) and Montrose (24-0) are the last unbeaten boys teams in either of the top two classifications, yet the Colts are seeded No. 2 and Montrose at No. 4 in the 4A bracket. Brothers Terrance (sr.) and Maurice Austin (so.) average 42.7 points, 9.6 steals and 10.8 assists combined for the Colts, who are beating opponents by an average of 36.9 points/game. Montrose hasn’t allowed a team to score more than 50 points since beating Coronado 67-60 in its first game of the season.
Chasing perfection, II. The Platte Valley girls enter the 3A tournament with the state’s longest win streak at 35 games. One must go back more than a full calendar year (Jan. 30, 2021) to find the last time the Broncos lost. With all of their key players back from last year’s title team, the Broncos could very well run that streak to 40 by the time everything is said and done.
Chasing perfection, III. Former head coach Alex Schrempf’s slow build at Aspen is paying off this winter, with the 3A No. 3 Skiers unbeaten at 22-0. First-year coach Cory Parker’s senior-laden group has just four wins against teams still alive in the 3A and 4A brackets (two vs. 3A No. 32 Delta), but after a run to the Great 8 last year, Aspen is battle-tested.
Chasing perfection, IV. The Windsor girls (23-0) aren’t just unbeaten, they are unchallenged in Class 4A. The Wizards have beaten every opponent they have faced this season by 10 points or more, with Mead’s 58-46 loss to Windsor on Jan. 28 the closest any Colorado team has come to touching them.
ճ-?The last team to beat the Wizards? That would be two-time defending 4A champion Mullen, which topped Windsor in last year’s title game and has won 15 straight playoff games dating back to its 2019 championship. Can you call it a three-peat if one season (2020) in the middle didn’t have a conclusion? The Mustangs could put that question to the test.
Air Harris. The highlight of the weekend came Saturday at Smoky Hill (16-7), where 6-foot-5 senior Anthony Harris Jr. pulled off a dunk for the ages — . A little perspective: When Isaiah Rider executed the same “” in the 1994 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, it received a perfect score. Harris’ stuff came within the flow of a 56-51 win over Rocky Mountain.
Centennial showdown. A familiar face awaits Harris and the Buffaloes in the Sweet 16: sixth-seeded Eaglecrest (19-4). The two Centennial League rivals split their two meetings during the regular season, with both teams winning on its home court. Thus, the edge goes to the Raptors and their own 6-5 star, Mostapha Elmoutaouakkil (20.5 points, 5.6 rebounds/game).
Doug Co. dominance. Five of the 16 teams left in the 5A boys bracket reside in Douglas County: No. 1 ThunderRidge (22-2), No. 3 Chaparral (19-4), No. 5 Douglas County (20-3), No. 8 Mountain Vista (17-6) and No. 9 Rock Canyon (16-7). No. 10 Regis Jesuit (15-7) is also alive, meaning the top six teams from the 5A/4A Continental League all reached the Sweet 16.
Coyotes persevere. Two months ago, the Monarch girls were looking for a gym to hold practices after the . Now, the 5A No. 4 Coyotes (23-1) face No. 13 Fossil Ridge (18-6) in their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2015. The junior foursome of Natalie Guanella (18.4 points/game), Amelia Rosin (12.4), Arezo Safi (10.2) and Caroline Walley (8.5) might just be getting started.
Flip the switch. Defending 4A boys champion Mead trailed at halftime of its eventual 63-52 round-of-32 win over Widefield. Cause for concern for the third-seeded Mavericks (20-4)? Top-seed Lewis Palmer, led by Air Force commit Cameron Lowe (17.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists/game), is one of several contenders that appear to be real threats for a Mead team that returned nearly everyone.
DPS flag bearer, Part I. The No. 4 Denver East boys are the last Denver Public Schools team left standing at 4A/5A. The Denver Prep League champs, led by guard Quis Davis and 6-8 senior Aguir Dawam, are 4-2 against teams alive in the 5A bracket. That includes wins over No. 3 Chaparral, No. 5 Douglas County, No. 6 Eaglecrest and No. 8 Mountain Vista.
DPS flag bearer, Part II. In 3A, the No. 7 Manual boys are dangerous, as evidenced by their surprise run through last week’s Metro League tournament with wins over No. 4 Colorado Academy and No. 16 Lutheran. All-everything senior Jordan Reed is the state’s leading scorer (30.5 points/game, 49.6% shooting), but the Thunderbolts aren’t just a one-man show.
Betts vs. Beers. The highly anticipated matchup between Grandview’s Lauren Betts and Valor Christian’s Raegan Beers is very much in play for the 5A girls championship. Betts — the nation’s top Class of 2022 recruit and a Stanford commit — and the No. 3 Wolves (14-9) took Round 1 earlier this season with a 59-52 win in Aurora on Jan. 8. Beers — the nation’s No. 10 Class of 2022 recruit and Oregon State-bound — and the No. 1 Eagles (20-3) haven’t lost since.
Pirates’ last ride. St. Mary’s fell one win shy of its first boys basketball state title last March, losing to the Lutheran Lions and Baye Fall in the 3A final. Now the top seed in 3A, the Pirates (21-1) and point guard Sam Howery (26.6 points, 8.8 assists, 8.4 rebounds/game) have won 12 in a row (all by double digits) since a mid-season loss to No. 5 Centauri (20-1).
This story has been corrected to reflect that the Montrose boys basketball team is also undefeated at 24-0.
