Brihanna Crittendon’s Colorado dominance tour has concluded.
Next stop, nationwide.
capped her historic prep career this year, breaking the CHSAA scoring record while leading the Ravens to a fourth straight Denver Coliseum appearance.
For her supremacy — the Texas-bound guard/forward led the state with 28.5 points per game while also averaging 6.7 rebounds, 3.2 steals, 2.4 assists and 1.2 blocks — she swept every top honor. She won the state Gatorade Player of the Year, MaxPreps state Player of the Year, the CHSAA Class 6A Player of the Year and, for the second time, The Denver Post’s Ms. Colorado Basketball.
The 6-foot-3 hooper now takes her generational talents to the national stage over the next month. First, the in Arizona. Then, the in Oregon, where she'll make her debut. And finally, the Jordan Brand Classic in Los Angeles, another high school senior all-star game.
"I'm definitely super excited for this (all-star game tour)," Crittendon said. "These are games you see online when you're a kid, and I've wanted to be a part of for a long time. So it's awesome that all my hard work is translating in that aspect, and not just in my own state.
"With these types of games, there's so much talent on the floor and it's hard for the ball to be spread around everywhere. So I'll try to find different ways to affect the game without having the ball in my hand, like getting stops or steals or rebounds on defense and hopefully letting those things translate into points on the other end."
Crittendon's primetime exhibit actually began before her senior season, when she competed in the SLAM Summer Classic at historic in August. Crowds lined up around the block to get into the high school showcase at the Manhattan streetball mecca. Crittendon scored double-digit points in the game and ended up on
From Harlem, Crittendon traveled straight to Los Angeles for the Nike Academy, a camp for elite high school prospects, and then to the Mamba League Invitational.
A generational record for a generational player
By the time Riverdale Ridge's season began on Dec. 4, Crittendon picked up right where she left off, dropping 30 points in a win over Fossil Ridge.
She broke Tracy Hill's 43-year old scoring record of 2,934 points on Feb. 14, and after the Ravens lost in the Class 6A Great 8, Crittendon finished her career with 3,073 points. Ravens head coach Tim Jones predicts it will be decades before anyone sniffs Crittendon's scoring mark.
"It's a shot in the dark to break it," Jones said. "It's one of those things where you've got to be something different, something generational like Bri is. I don't see it being broken any sooner than another 40-some years."
After committing to Texas on Nov. 19 — choosing the Longhorns over her other finalist, CU — Crittendon had nothing left to prove entering her senior season from an individual standpoint. Yes, she was chasing Hill's record, but she was clearly the de facto best player in the state, and the five-star was also ranked among the in the country.
Crittendon maintained that her focus was on "staying present with my team and enjoying our last year together, and even enjoying the hard moments, while staying excited about the future and continuing to grow."
That's exactly what Jones saw from the versatile, three-level scorer who played every position for the Ravens but profiles as a wing/small forward at the next level.
"She adjusted a lot defensively by guarding different positions, forcing herself to be uncomfortable in spaces, coming to the perimeter and playing smaller, quicker guards," Jones said. "She also became more keen on how defenses were playing her and finding new, different spaces to score. Overall, she became more strategic in her game."
Best on the biggest stages
Amid Crittendon's rise, there was some behind-the-scenes criticism by coaches and basketball pundits around the state about who she was putting up wild scoring numbers against. Riverdale Ridge played her freshman and sophomore seasons in Class 4A, winning the title there in 2024, before moving up to Class 6A for her junior and senior seasons.
Even after jumping two classifications, the Ravens ran roughshod over their Rocky Mountain League opponents. Over the past two seasons, Riverdale Ridge was 24-0 in league, with a 70.5-point average margin of victory. But Jones points out that Crittendon usually played half the game or less in those blowouts, and that when Riverdale Ridge played marquee opponents in its non-conference schedule or in the state tournament, her scoring didn't dip.
As a case-in-point this season, Jones cited Riverdale Ridge's game against Ontario Christian, the California powerhouse filled with blue-chip recruits, which won the CIF open division state championship before finishing Crittendon scored 31 points against Ontario Christian despite facing consistent double-teams by fellow Power 4 recruits.
"Look at all the biggest matchups she's had, and she excelled," Jones said. "We've played the best of what Colorado had to offer the past few years, even in scrimmages. We played nationally-ranked teams out of state. She's produced on the biggest stages. She did it with her club, averaging over 30 points a game in one of the toughest circuits (the Select 40) in the country.
"So we can't keep saying (her scoring averages) are because of the league or classification she played in."
Ex-Regis Jesuit star , another two-time Ms. Colorado Basketball who went to Texas, agrees.
Akigbogun, who is currently an assistant coach at Denver East, calls Crittendon a "remarkable" scorer who "can consistently make something out of nothing."
"I think people are foolish if they say that there could be an asterisk next to that record because to score 3,000 points, you have to score the ball," Akigbogun said. "It doesn't matter who you're playing against — to be able to score at that high of a level in every single game, it's hard to do."
Amid all her success and accolades, Crittendon's teammate Chloe Parker noted that No. 3 remained level-headed and coachable.
"She set the bar high for our school and for Colorado girls basketball going forward," said Parker, an Air Force pledge. "She's consistent. She's never going to be super high or super low — whether she just broke the scoring record, or we lost at the Coliseum, it was the same Bri every single day."
Akigbogun says that no matter what the future holds for Crittendon — Texas coach Vic Schaefer said he believes she can be an All-SEC player, while Crittendon's ultimate ambition remains the WNBA — the Riverdale Ridge superstar's legacy is cemented in Colorado high school girls basketball lore.
"She's going to continue to strive to do great things, and it's good to look at different seasons of your life with separation," Akigbogun said. "What you've done in high school is different than what you'll do in college.
"But no matter what she does or doesn't do, it doesn't take away from what she's done now. What she's done in this state at this level in her four years is going to be forever remarkable, regardless of what happens later on. Anybody that's going to be watching high school basketball, her name is always going to come up in those circles when talking about the great players Colorado has produced."
