This years state tournament was a good one. With surprises in all classifications and upsets abound. Teams that didn’t show up one night found themselves in very tight games or getting beat. My predictions were off a bit but I did pick the 2A Boys State Champions, 1A Boys State Champion, 3A Girls State Champion, 2A Girls State Champion, and 1A Girls State Champion. The best game I watched in the 2A and 1A side was between #1 Creede and #5 Peetz in the Semifinals. Peetz escaped with a 69-67 OT win and here is the video of the final play of OT.
Class 3A Boys
Coming into the initial round of the state tournament that anything could happen in the 3A field. I figured Sterling was probably the only lock for a team to make the Final 4. Sterling did hold up their end and make it to the final 4, Lutheran and Faith Christian were the other two favorites as well to make the final 4. The 1 team to crash the party was #7 Bayfield who peaked at the right team and pulled upset #1 beating Alamosa 43-38. The Semifinals is were things really got interesting. In the early game Lutheran pulled a monster upset beating #1 Sterling 39-37 and then #7 Bayfield pulled a similar stunner beating #6 Faith Christian 45-42. The State Championship was set with #7 Bayfield vs #12 Lutheran. Bayfield kept the hot streak going and pulled the 3rd upset of the tournament beating Lutheran 68-57. Bayfield who peaked at the right time and played their best basketball of the season in the State Tournament, Bayfield also won the 2A State Football title and pulled of the rare feat of capturing both state championship.
Class 2A Boys
Class 2A boys was a wide open field with all 8 teams realistically having a shot at the state championship. Round #1 nearly went as planned. #1 Crowley County held off a late surge from Sanford winning 48-41, #3 Byers beat Ignacio 65-44, #2 Yuma blasted Ellicott 62-28, and the first upset was #4 Highland upset by #5 Meeker 74-59. The Semifinals did go as planned with #1 Crowley County beating Meeker 63-47 and #2 Yuma holding off #3 Byers 58-54. The State Championship was set with #1 Crowley County vs #2 Yuma. Both teams were highly ranked nearly the entire season with Crowley being my #1 team since the pre-season poll and Yuma joining the rankings after the 1st week of the season. Yuma came out to play and beat a very good Crowley County team 59-41. Yuma who didn’t even make Regional last year put a heck of a run together this year. Yuma never lost a game to a team from Colorado and proved they were the best team in 2A. Yuma will lose some key pieces from this year’s team but should be a contender again next year.
Class 1A Boys
Class 1A Boys had a handful of teams that would figure to fight for the State Championship. The bracket seeding was not the best but the cream of the teams still ended up in the Semifinals. #1 Creede beat #8 Cornerstone Christian 55-46, #5 Peetz beat #4 Sangre De Cristo 64-29, #2 Front Range Baptist beat #7 Genoa-Hugo 65-31, and #6 South Baca beat #3 Heritage Christian 75-59. The semifinals is were some of the best basketball game of the entire season would play out. #2 Front Range Baptist vs #6 South Baca was a back and forth affair with neither team taking charge. In the fourth quarter South Baca had the biggest run of the game and took the lead and held on late to beat Front Range Baptist 64-57. Semifinal #2 was between #1 Creede and #5 Peetz. Both teams were ranked all season and this was one of the best games of the season. Creede trailed most of the game to Peetz until the fourth quarter were Creede went on a 9-0 run to take a 2 point lead. Peetz answered the run to tie the game up. With around 9 seconds left Creede had the ball and a chance to pull the win. Creede came up just short on a last second attempt and overtime would ensue. Both teams came out the game swinging with Peetz draining a three and Creede answering. With both teams tied at 67 and 4 seconds left Peetz had the ball and drew up the right play and hit a last second layup to win the game. Video is posted near the top. Peetz would beat Creede 69-67. In the State Championship both teams looked to finish off their runs for the state title. Peetz held a narrow lead at halftime and kept that pace to finish off their State Championship run. Peetz beat South Baca 51-44. Peetz also captured the 6-Man State Football title and very rare to see titles in both sports.
Class 3A Girls
In my mind Class 3A girls had 5 teams that could win a state championship. They were St. Mary’s, CSCS, Centauri, Lamar, and Pagosa Springs. Round #1 would see two of the five eliminated. CSCS beat Centauri 52-37 to move into the semifinals and Lamar beat Pagosa Springs 42-33 to move into the semifinals. St. Mary’s slammed Cedaredge 64-33 and Moffat County beat Kent Denver 44-32 to move on as well. The semifinal matchups would see one more of the finals teams eliminated. #3 St. Mary’s beat #10 Lamar 48-36 and #4 CSCS beat #8 Moffat County 51-30. The State Championship was set with #3 St. Mary’s vs #4 CSCS. This was a rubber match with both teams splitting during the regular and League Tournament. St. Mary’s was also looking for their first State Championship. This was a hard fought game with St. Mary’s holding on late to beat CSCS 44-38.
Class 2A Girls
Class 2A Girls had a favorite to win it all and it was Yuma but plenty of teams stood in the way of Yuma capturing the state title. #1 Yuma opened up with a hard fought win against Ignacio 39-29 and I think this game really woke Yuma up. The other games had some surprises as well with #5 Limon beat #4 Holyoke 39-30, #3 Wray over #6 Rangely 69-49, and the first upset was #7 Clear Creek beating #2 Simla 40-28. The Semifinals kept things rolling with #1 Yuma beating a young Limon team 39-28 and another upset was #7 Clear Creek upsetting #3 Wray 60-49. The State Championship was set with #1 Yuma against #7 Clear Creek. Clear Creek was playing their best basketball of the season and had the confidence. Yuma was hoping to finish their run off and not fall to a hot Clear Creek team. Yuma came out in the first quarter and set the ton. Yuma would keep that pace and would capture a state championship. Yuma would beat Clear Creek 45-23. Yuma will also have a chance for a back to back state tournament with two of their best players coming back.
Class 1A Girls
Class 1A Girls also had a huge favorite in Kit Carson who was looking to repeat as State Champions. Kit Carson would have to hold off the other teams who were looking to take down Goliath. Kit Carson started their tournament run blasting #8 Belleview Christian 73-23. The other games were very competitive with #4 Fleming beat #5 North Park 61-46, #2 Kim/Branson over #7 Heritage Christian 43-31, and a very good game between #3 Holly and #6 Briggsdale. Briggsdale would pull an upset beating Holly 65-59. The Semifinals were set #1 Kit Carson would take on #4 Fleming. Fleming would give their best shot at taking down Kit Carson and would keep the game close but Kit Carson would have control winning 43-28. The other semifinal game was #2 Kim/Branson vs #6 Briggsdale. Kim/Branson would come out swinging taking a big first quarter lead. Briggsdale never gave up and cut the lead down to 2 in the fourth quarter. Kim/Branson was able to hold on late to pull off the 50-46 win. The finals were set #1 Kit Carson vs #2 Kim/Branson. Kim/Branson would also give their best effort but Kit Carson was just to much to handle. Kit Carson would capture their back to back state title beating Kim/Branson 63-39. What is scary about Kit Carson is they only have 1 senior and will be looking for the 3-peat.
MileHigh Prep Report 