St. Mary's, with standout Josephine Howery, is the defending champion in Class 3A and a favorite to repeat as games start this weekend. Class 2A and 1A regionals also will be competed to determine their state fields.
File photo by Jeffrey Tucker
The coming of March means the going of girls basketball season in Colorado. After the conclusion of district play in Class 3A and 2A last week, the state tournament picture has become clearer. The state bracket for 3A was released Tuesday and regional games in 2A and 1A were set as well by CHSAA.
Defending champions in 3A
St. Mary's (Colorado Springs),
Yuma (2A) and
Kit Carson (1A) are still alive and in good position to make a run at repeating.
Challengers in
Pagosa Springs,
Limon and
South Baca, respectively, will look to play spoiler and hoist championship trophies of their own. The games are going to be intense, the atmospheres are going to be electric and each tournament will provide players, fans and coaches with enough memories to last a lifetime.
Class 3A
Overview: It could be a case of déjà vu heading into the tournament. Defending champion St. Mary's enters the bracket as the top overall seed, and last year's runner-up in Colorado Springs Christian enters at No. 2. The Pirates and Lions split their season series a year ago with the rubber match coming in the state title game.
By no means is this a two-horse race, however. Delta has had a strong showing this season and dropped just one game all year. That was a 53-43 loss to
Centauri (La Jara).
Centauri is looking to make its way back to the Great 8, but a couple of late-season losses to
Alamosa took the Falcons out of position to host. Instead they have to travel to
The Academy (Westminster) for their games.
Roaring Fork (Carbondale) awaits them in the first round and if they advance, they'll see the winners of The Academy and
Brush.
Pagosa Springs is another team that shouldn't be disregarded. The only two losses on the year were to
St. Mary's and CSC, but that was early.
Hailey Griego and
Devin Wilson have been a formidable duo for Intermountain League foes to handle. If they catch fire at the right time, it could be anyone's bracket next weekend.
Platte Valley site
The biggest factor when looking at the teams that
Platte Valley (Kersey) is hosting this weekend is that each one – the Broncos included – have been grinding through their schedules all year. The Patriot League is as tough as ever, demonstrated with No. 5
Eaton also hosting this week.
Kent Denver (Cherry Hills Village) and
Colorado Academy (Denver) also come from a tough Metro League schedule that features an annual state championship contender in
Lutheran (Parker).
Then there's an Alamosa team that battled against Pagosa Springs three times this year. The Pirates have accounted for three of the Mean Moose's five losses.
Class 2A
Overview: The 2A bracket has perhaps the biggest distribution of talent across the board. Limon comes in as the top seed by way of a 21-1 record. Only
Toni Lopez averaged at least 10 points per game for the Badgers, but she had a wide range of support. Three other players averaged around seven points per game, including freshman
Trista Marx.
Nine teams playing in 2A regionals lost fewer than four games all year. Of those nine, two of them are ranked outside the top 10 of the overall field.
Heritage Christian (Fort Collins) comes in as the No. 11 season despite going 22-1 overall and 12-0 in league play this year. The Eagles have a dominant post player in
Emma Johnson, who averages 13.7 points and 12.1 rebounds per game.
The other highly-successful team that fell that out of the top 10 in the seeding process was
Rye. The Thunderbolts lost just two games all year, including a district championship game to Swink. As luck would have it, Rye is in Swink's region. The freshman duo of
Sophie Adamson and
Sydney Adamson have been fantastic for the Thunderbolts, averaging 11.4 and 8.4 points per game, respectively.
Aside from the top four seeds, host schools for 2A regionals include
Sanford,
Dawson School (Lafayette),
Simla and
Ignacio.
Toughest region: Region 7
At times, Simla has played and competed like a top team in the state. It suffered an eight-point loss to top-seeded Limon earlier in the year, but a stellar showing from sophomore
Halle Lutz – who scored 20 in the loss – showed that the Cubs have the ability to hang with the best.
The problem that awaits them is No. 10
Del Norte. Not only do the Tigers have the top scorer in the class in
Kendra Parra (23.7 points per game) but they also have big wins over other 2A host teams. Whichever team comes out of this region is going to be battle-tested for the final weekend of the state tournament.
Class 1A
Top seeds: Kit Carson, South Baca,
Sangre de Cristo (Mosca),
Briggsdale //
BracketsOverview: Region 1 will see two teams advance to next weekend as
De Beque and
Genoa-Hugo/Karval will play in a one-off game, as will
Elbert and
North Park (Walden). The remainder of the brackets have the top seed issued a bye directly into the regional championship game, with semifinal games to be played on Friday to determine those championship matchups.
Haxtun and
Fleming join the top four seeds as teams with automatic placements in regional championships.
Cotopaxi is the highest ranked team, both in terms of record and 1A RPI, that will be playing in a semifinal game on Friday. A sophomore one-two punch has led the Pirates to this moment of the season.
Koylynn Gulliford is averaging 14.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
Shealee Coleman scores 12.5 a game and also leads the team with 3.3 assists per contest.
Eads played well toward the end of the season and grabbed wins over McClave and Genoa-Hugo/Karval; two teams still alive in 1A. On Feb. 7 the Eagles suffered a six-point loss to South Baca and
Kaylee Wilson shined with an 18-point performance. If they can get by
Springfield on Friday it would set up a showdown with Sangre de Cristo. If Wilson can have a similar performance against the Thunderbirds they might be in play for an upset.
Toughest region: Region 2/Bracket 2 & Region 2/Bracket 3
The interesting thing about these two brackets is there is a team in each one that has shown the ability to play well in big games. They also feature teams already in the regional championship game that could stumble if they're not at their sharpest come game time. Fleming lost a close one to Genoa-Hugo/Karval in early February.
Arickaree/Woodlin has taken down
Shining Mountain (Boulder), a team that has competed against the likes of Dawson, the No. 6 seed in the 2A bracket. For the Broncos, senior
Micah Koolstra brings veteran leadership and a scoring rate of 13.8 points per game with her. The Lions are led by sophomore
Frances Hilliard, who averages 15.3 a game. If an upset is in the making in 1A, it wouldn't be a surprise if it came from one of these regions.
