DENVER — Perhaps fittingly, the final rebound of Holy Family’s 48-40 win over No. 1 University in Friday’s Class 4A Final Four was pulled down and fiercely secured by the Tigers’ Priya Lucas.
At 5-foot-10, Lucas was well outsized by the Bulldogs’ front court at the Denver Coliseum. But it mattered very little. She scored eight of her 11 points in the fourth quarter to go along with a game-high 16 rebounds, and the fourth-ranked Tigers outfought the defending champions and redeemed their loss to University in last year’s Final Four.
“If we need someone on the team to do it, I’m happy to do it,” Lucas said of her role this season, where she’s averaging a double-double. “And if my shot isn’t falling, that’s one thing I can control: just crash the boards.”
University had just four field goals through three quarters but did enough at the free throw line to stay within reach, trailing only 28-25.
It got no closer, though.
The Tigers opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run and curbed any semblance of a comeback by converting from the line late after the Bulldogs went into foul-and-pray mode.
“We knew we had to get it done, and we did,” Lucas said. “We did it for each other.”
The Tigers never trailed. Gracie Ward, who finished with 12 points, engineered a 10-0 start and a 12-2 early lead for Holy Family, assisting on four of her team’s first five baskets.
She sprang up to rescue a pass well over her head and turned it into a no-look setup for Elli Nugent cutting to the hoop. And later, she helped push the lead to 12-2, turning a steal into a picturesque heave to Lorena Cover in stride for a breakaway layup.
The one bucket she didn’t assist on in the opening quarter was her own — a 3 so pure the net barely moved.
Alexcia Oaxaca and Lorena Cover each added 10 points in the win.
“We wanted to dominate every possession of the game,” Ward said. “We had to want it more, and it showed in our defense to start the fourth quarter — and obviously the first one, too, when we jumped out to that quick lead.”
On Saturday, the Tigers will go for their eighth girls basketball state title when they face No. 3 Kent Denver in the 4A championship game at 10 a.m. Eight state titles would tie Mullen for the second-most in Colorado girls hoops history. Eads leads the state with nine, with its last championship coming in 2008.
