Hudgins lifts Grandview to title game
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 Hudgins 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 sophomore transfer from Georgia couldn’t miss 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 fourth-quarter 3s, the first of which gave the Wolves their first lead since going up 2-0 at the start of the game.
“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 (25-2) sophomore Raegan Beers battled Betts with 14 points and 15 rebounds.
It wasn’t enough, however, as Grandview (24-3) clinched a return trip to the 5A championship.
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 Van Gytenbeek and a Charley Gordon trey with 1:21 left in the frame that put the bracket’s 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, 6540, and Creek returning the favor in Aurora on Feb. 19, 53-42.
No. 9 Mullen 64, No. 4 Berthoud 57. The Mustagns spent the first three rounds of the Class 4A state tournament running opponents off the court. In Thursday night’s Final Four matchup against Berthoud, the defending 4A champs needed nearly every second just to survive.
Abby Webster’s layup with 20 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime, then Megan Pohs scored 10 of her game-high 30 points in the extra frame as the Mustangs kept their back-to-back title hopes alive inside Denver Coliseum.
“We knew we came too far to lose and we had four minutes left to give it our hardest,” said Pohs, whose Mustangs beat their first three state opponents by an average of 35.3 points. “We did and we came out and got the W.”
With Mustangs post Imani Perez on the bench with five fouls, Pohs scored on the very first possession of OT on a shake-andbake drive. She drained 6-of-6 from the free-throw line after that and added a steal and layup for good measure to push Mullen (20-7) past Berthoud (24-3) and into Saturday’s 4A title game against Holy Family.
“It’s definitely a really good feeling, but it’s my teammates who got me open, gave me the ball,” said the 5-foot-3 point guard, who shot 5-of-11 from 3-point range and 11-of-12 at the charity stripe.
Pohs’ performance spoiled a valiant upset bid from the higher seeded, yet underdog Spartans.
No. 7 Holy Family 38, No. 3 Green Mountain 31. In the school’s second straight trip to the Final Four, Holy Family punched its ticket to the championship game with a gritty victory against Green Mountain Thursday in Denver Coliseum.
Both teams struggled scoring to start, with Holy Family junior Tyler Whitlock notching the game’s first points more than four minutes into action with a steal-andscore layup. The Tigers pulled away for a 16-8 halftime lead, but the teams combined for 13 turnovers and 37 missed shots entering the break.
Holy Family managed only 3 points in the third quarter, but kept Green Mountain at a distance with high volume on the freethrow line, finishing the game with 15 makes on 22 attempts. The Tigers began their clock-control offense with more than three minutes left in regulation and the Rams simply couldn’t catch up.