A freshman girl hit a buzzer-beater to make school history and the defending boys champs advanced in wire-to-wire fashion in another chaotic, undeniably entertaining day at the Denver Coliseum.
Plus, the of Parker pulled off a Final Four double-dip, with the top-seeded girls cruising past Pueblo East and the No. 10 boys edging Grand Junction in the final games of the day.
Here’s everything to know from Saturday’s Class 5A and Great 8 action at the Coliseum to set up next week’s Final Four:
Girls: No. 2 Green Mountain 50, No. 7 Mead 40. Despite losing star senior Kantyn Pearson to a knee injury in the regular-season finale, the Rams kept on humming to advance to their second consecutive Final Four amid their 23rd straight win this season.
Green Mountain hasn’t lost since a 59-48 defeat to Cherokee Trail, the top seed in Class 6A which is in that bracket’s Final Four, on Dec. 6. The Rams looked poised and seasoned on Saturday while rallying from a 24-14 deficit late in the first half.
Junior forward Addie Evans led the Rams with 17 points and six rebounds, while junior guard Grace Herrig added 15 points. The Mavericks were paced by 14 points by senior guard/forward Elena Gomez and 12 points by freshman guard Kally Clark.
Boys: No. 13 Silver Creek 62, No. 12 Mesa Ridge 55. The Raptors’ dream run in the final season of retiring head coach at the school continued with a gritty win over the Grizzlies.
The back-and-forth game featured seven lead changes, and the Raptors got balanced scoring from the trio of senior guards Connor Bonsett (15 points), Luke Schmeeckle (14) and Blake Gorr (14). Senior 6-foot-6 center Cooper Herchert also came up clutch, with nine points and 11 rebounds.
Those four players helped Silver Creek offset a game-high 19 points by Mesa Ridge senior J’marius Jones, plus double-digit rebounds by seniors Eligah Myles and Brian Lamar. Silver Creek also shot well from 3 (6-for-11), while Mesa Ridge struggled at the line (4-of-12).
Girls: No. 5 Standley Lake 68, No. 4 Windsor 62. Call it the JoJo Martin Game.
With 5.7 seconds left, the Standley Lake freshman phenom stole the ball off a Windsor inbound and hit a buzzer-beating, to earn the Gators their first Final Four appearance in program history.
In a game where each team had four players score in double figures, Martin dropped a game-high 33 points with seven rebounds and two steals, the most critical of which helped propel the Gators to where they’ve never gone before.
Freshman Chloe Miller (14 points), senior Aaliyah Valenzuela (11) and freshman Ireland Kassatly (10) all also came up with critical buckets throughout the game to outlast Windsor in an instant-classic that saw four lead changes and eight ties.
The Wizards, who held a significant edge in rebounds (36-20) and points in the paint (40-28), were led by junior Nola Greenwald’s 18 points. They also got scoring from junior Gracie Worsley (15), senior Gabriella Gates (14) and junior Paityn Deselms (10). A 3 by Worsley with 22 seconds left tied it, but then Windsor was careless with the ball off the inbound under its own basket in the waning seconds, and Martin made the Wizards pay.
Boys: No. 11 Windsor 63, No. 3 Severance 51. The defending champions are back in the Final Four following a wire-to-wire victory headlined by Wyoming commit Madden Smiley.
The senior guard turned in a game-high 19 points along with nine rebounds, and senior Brady Kingsley chipped in 13 points while sophomore Marek Noel had 12. The Wizards led by as many as 14 points at one point, and capitalized on Severance miscues with 16 points off 16 turnovers.
The Knights were led by 13 points apiece from senior Blake Varney and sophomore Christian Powell. Windsor took an 14-8 lead after one quarter and Severance was never able to make it interesting after that. The Wizards looked like a battle-tested team that played much of their regular-season schedule against Class 6A and out-of-state opponents.
Girls: No. 3 Montrose 61, No. 6 Air Academy 54. It was Kinley Asp vs. Everybody, and Everybody won.
Asp, the committed to Boston College, ripped off 36 points. But she got very little scoring help from her surrounding cast, and Montrose’s more balanced attack catalyzed the Red Hawks to victory.
Senior forward Mayce Oberg led Montrose with 20 points, while freshman guard Landree Johnson added 14 points and senior guard Maggie Legg had 13. Beyond Asp, no one else on the Kadets had more than five points.
The Red Hawks owned the opening frame, 16-8, but Air Academy battled back to tie it 26-26 at halftime. A key difference in the game was Montrose’s shooting from deep (9-of-18 from 3) and the Red Hawks also held a 17 to 7 advantage in points off turnovers as they led for all but 1:07.
Montrose, the Southwestern League champions, improved to 26-0. They are one of only two undefeated girls hoops teams remaining in Colorado, along with Simla in Class 2A.
Boys: No. 8 Lewis-Palmer 63, No. 1 Palisade 46. Bill Benton’s done it again.
The longtime Lewis-Palmer head coach led the Rangers back to the Final Four, this time with a dominating performance over top-seeded Palisade. The Bulldogs led for just 10 seconds of the game, and Lewis-Palmer took a commanding 19-4 lead after one quarter and never looked back.
Rangers senior guard Jonas Miller led the way with 17 points, while sophomore guard Devin Vandermeer had 16 points. Palisade was paced by 15 points by senior Hunter Howard.
Lewis-Palmer, owner of five state championships including two under Benton in 2019 and ’22, is peaking when it matters most after a late-regular season loss to Lutheran on Feb. 1.
Girls: No. 1 Lutheran 50, No. 9 Pueblo East 30. The Lions never trailed to punch their Final Four ticket with authority.
senior guard/forward and Dordt University commit Berkley Schneider, tallied a game-high 18 points while junior center Isla Koffmann dominated the glass with nine rebounds and also had four steals. Pueblo East freshman Dejanay Arrington led the Eagles with 13 points.
The Lions consistently capitalized off Pueblo East miscues, scoring 27 points off 21 Eagles turnovers. Lutheran led by as many as 26 points at one point. The Lions have now won 18 in a row, with their last defeat coming in overtime to Green Mountain on Dec. 18. Those two programs could meet again in next Saturday’s championship.
Boys: No. 10 Lutheran 61, No. 2 Grand Junction 54. Following the triumph by the Lions girls, the Lutheran boys pulled off the Final Four double-dip with an upset of Grand Junction.
Lutheran — coached by former Chaparral star Josh Adams, whose famous tip-in at the buzzer of the 2012 championship lifted the Wolverines to a title — was led by 6-foot-9 senior forward . The Indiana State commit had a game-high 23 points and nine rebounds, while senior guards Landon Hastedt (12 points) and Adams State football commit Evan Makkai (10) also contributed.
The Tigers were paced by sophomore guards Will Weirath (16 points) and Grant Lewis (14). By advancing to the Final Four, the Lions are on the doorstep of a crack at a fifth title, with the most recent one coming in Class 3A in 2021.
Class 5A Final Four Schedule
The Class 5A Final Four will be Thursday, March 12, back at the Denver Coliseum.
Boys
No. 8 Lewis-Palmer vs. No. 13 Silver Creek
No. 10 Lutheran vs. No. 11 Windsor
Girls
No. 1 Lutheran vs. No. 5 Standley Lake
No. 2 Green Mountain vs. No. 3 Montrose
