Roosevelt holds off Mead to advance to 5A girls final
It wasn’t flashy, but the gritty Roosevelt Rough Riders are headed to defend their title.
No. 2 Roosevelt outlasted No. 3 Mead in the Class 5A girls basketball Final Four on Thursday at the Denver Coliseum, 47-40, to set the reigning champions up with a Saturday showdown against upstart Northfield.
“Every single game, we’ve known we’re going to get everybody’s best shot,” Roosevelt head coach Enoch Miller said. “It’s been difficult mentally and physically on us, because we know there’s a target on our back. … Today wasn’t pretty, but we’ve found a way to win all year.”
The Riders led the entire game, as sophomore forward Kyla Hollier got them going by scoring the team’s first six points. She finished with a gamehigh 20 points paired with eight rebounds while looking like the most polished player on the floor.
“When the moment is big, (Hollier) gets that look in her eye, and she demands and wants the ball,” Miller said. “She’s a special player. Watch out next year — she’s going to be dominant.”
Mead hung around all game, but couldn’t put together an extended run necessary to make Roosevelt uncomfortable. The Mavericks dealt with the Riders’ signature pressure fairly well, but Roosevelt’s up-tempo style of play finally wore down Mead in the fourth quarter.
Roosevelt made it a point to take away the Mavericks’ 3-point threats, as Mead finished 5 of 15 from distance.
“They have four players who have hit at least 25 threes this season, so we bet on the fact they can’t make enough twos to beat us,” Miller said. “They made a few in the fourth quarter, but they had zero at the end of the first half. We crowded the threepoint line.”
Senior forward Gianna Wurth led Mead with 14 points and sophomore guard Elena Gomez added 12 points. But Roosevelt’s superiority in certain facets of the game set the Riders apart. Behind Hollier, they had a 30-20 advantage in points in the paint, a 13-5 advantage in secondchance points and a 35-18 edge in rebounds.
“We needed to use our size during the game, because they were pretty small inside, so our plan was to get the ball inside a lot,” said Hollier, who has offers from BYU, CSU and Utah State. “I feel like we executed pretty well.”
Roosevelt turned the ball over 22 times, which kept Mead in the game and had Miller red-hot at times. But Roosevelt’s stifling defense, especially in the half-court, prevented Mead from being able to run their sets consistently.
Hollier’s domination made up for Roosevelt’s inefficiency behind the arc (2 of 9) and at the charity stripe (7 of 15). Roosevelt had a five-point lead at half (19-14) and at the end of the third quarter (30-25) as Mead could never quite close the gap.
The Riders are making their fourth title game appearance — they appeared in the Class 3A championships in 1994 and 2003, losing both — and denied the Mavericks the chance at their first title game.
Roosevelt, the Longs Peak League champions, improved to 25-2 while Mead, the Northern League runner-up behind Class 4A powerhouse Holy Family, finished 22-5.
CLASS 5A BOYS — NO. 3 WINDSOR 35, NO. 2 VISTA PEAK PREP 32 >> The Wizards are headed back to the championship round for the first time in 14 years, with a shot at the program’s first state title since 1924.
Windsor held off a late surge from Vista PEAK Prep, with sophomore Madden Smiley scoring the go-ahead layup with 15 seconds left to advance one round further than last year’s Final Four squad.
Vista’s attempt to either tie or take the lead fell short when senior guard Julian Carrizales stepped out of bounds on the following possession.
Smiley finished with a game-high 12 points for the Wizards (23-4), as he was the only player to score in double figures. Senior guard Javon Lowman led the Bison (22-5) with seven points while senior post Kyree Polk totaled six rebounds and eight blocks.