RCS boys show tenacity in win over Montview
Resurrection Christian coach Ryan Yoder found the perfect word to describe his team’s dominating in-thepaint performance against DSST: Montview in Saturday’s Great 8 showdown. “Tenacity,” Yoder said. En route to their 74-54 victory, the second-seeded Cougars outrebounded the Knights 47-12, snarred 19 offensive rebounds, had 24 second-chance points and 52 points in the paint.
“Watching film on these guys, we knew they didn’t box out too well,” said junior Graham Riggs, who scored a team-high 21 points and hauled in eight rebounds. “We have a lot of height and strength on our team, so we figured if they weren’t going to box us out we’d have a lot of layups and put-backs.”
Senior Marcus Phillips muscled his way to a double-double, scoring 16 points and hauling in 11 rebounds, for the Cougars.
Resurrection Christian (24-2), which lost year’s 4A championship to Holy Family, is back in the Final Four. The Cougars play the winner of Saturday night’s late game between Riverdale Ridge and Lutheran.
Seventh-seeded Montview, led by junior guard Harun Hamma’s 16 points, kept within range for most of the game by using their quickness and shooting 7 of 19 from 3-point land, but it wasn’t enough.
Simeon Woldeyohannes gave the Mustangs the lead, then his teammates took care of the rest to clinch Colorado Academy’s first trip to the Final Four since 2015.
The senior point guard exploded for 17 of his gamehigh 23 points in the opening 13 minutes — seven coming in a game-changing 13-0 second-quarter run — to stake the Mustangs (215) to a 29-17 lead. Pagosa Springs (24-2) got no closer than eight the rest of way, as the Pirates’ 23-game win streak came to an end.
Colorado Academy’s length made life difficult for the Pirates, particularly inside where the Mustangs held a 28-12 edge on points in the paint and 38-25 advantage on the boards. They were also lights out from 3-point range (6 of 12) and free throw line (17 of 21).
George Buyers added 15 points while sinking 11 of 12 free throws for Colorado Academy, and Clyde Love chipped in 13. Ridge Wilson led Pagosa Springs with 10 points.
Girls
Topranked Holy Family rained 3-pointers on the Pumas en route to an easy victory in the first game of the day.
The Tigers sank 8 or 18 shots from beyond the arc, not an easy task in the cavernous Coliseum.
Included in the barrage was a 40-foot banker by Gracie Ward at the secondhalf buzzer and a 35-foot swisher by Enyiah Contreraz at the first-quarter buzzer.
“We practice those, all the time, for those situations,” said Essyence Contreraz, the dynamic senior point guard who led Holy Family with 12 points.
Holy Family, under legendary head coach Ron Rossi, is back in the Final Four as Rossi shoots for a record-breaking eighth state title as a girls coach.
Peak to Peak’s only real chance Saturday was to feed the ball into 6-foot-5 junior post player Alexandra Eschmeyer. The Stanford commit scored a game-high 14 points on 6-of 9-shooting.
Olivia Klein caught fire, the Resurrection Christian defense locked in, and now the Cougars are headed to the Class 4A Final Four for the first time in more than 17 years.
A back-and-forth opening quarter gave way to 11 minutes, 12 seconds of defensive dominance from the Cougars (23-3). Pagosa Springs (21-5) missed 19 straight shots from the floor, Klein knocked down two of her four 3s, and a 17-16 Pirates lead turned into a 33-20 Cougars edge.
The junior guard finished with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, while junior post Lysette Baatz added 15 on 6-of-9 shooting.
A desperate fourth-quarter rally from the Pirates drew them to within six when junior Karsyn Shahan (13 points) buried a 3-pointer from the wing with 2:20 to go. But Bethany Vrooman kicked it out to Mackenzie Flikkema for a 3-pointer dagger of her own on the other end.
Brihanna Crittendon, the five-star sophomore, dominated in her return trip to the Coliseum.
A year after falling to D’evelyn in the Great 8, the 6-foot-3 forward put up 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting with 14 rebounds and four blocks to lead the Ravens (23-3) to their first Final Four berth. They’ll face those same Jaguars next Friday.