Congratulation to your Class 2A Girls State Champions and State Tournament Recap

Congratulation to your Class 2A Girls State Champions and State Tournament Recap

Congratulations to the Merino Rams on winning the Class 2A State Tournament.  This was the first State Championship in Class 2A and the first State Title for Merino since 2022.  A interesting fact that was brought to my attention by my good friend Ben Blecha: Senior Makenna Sutter ends here basketball and Volleyball career with a 167-30 record and 5 State Championships.

The Class 2A Girls State Field was a competitive one but I think the main question on everyone mind was could any upset Merino.  Merino was the favorite coming into the tournament and were undefeated.  The opening round of the state tournament had just one game that was decided by less than 10 points.  #7 Wiggins would upset #2 Rangely 35 to 29.  This was a great game that would be decided in the fourth quarter of play.  Wiggins would hold a slim 1-point lead heading into the fourth quarter but would outscore Rangely 7 to 2 to secure the upset.  Some other score of the opening round saw Merino defeat Mancos 61 to 29, Simla defeat Hoehne 50 to 38, and Burlington defeat Denver Christian 63 to 50. 

The Consolation Semifinals would see a pair of upsets happen.  The first was #8 Mancos over #4 Hoehne 38 to 31.  Defense was the key to this game as we had an 11 to 8 score at halftime.  Offense would pick up in the second half as we would see Hoehne continue to cut into the lead and trail going into the fourth 22 to 20.  Mancos would respond after losing the 2^nd and 3^rd quarter by winning the fourth 16 to 11 and advance to the Consolation Championship.  The other Consolation Semifinal was #6 Denver Christian defeat #2 Rangely 60 to 46.  Denver Christian came out shooting extremely hot from the field hitting multiple 3-pointers to gain the early lead.  Denver Christian never looked back and moved onto the Consolation Championship.

The Championship Semifinals saw a pair of very good games.  Merino would take on Simla in the first semifinal with Merino defeating Simla 56 to 44.  This was a much closer game than the score indicates.  Simla would trail Merino 24 to 22 at halftime.  The size of Simla plus Simla handling the pressure defense thru 2 quarters of play made this a great game.  Merino would hold a slim 37 to 34 lead heading into the fourth quarter.  Merino would push their lead out using their defense and Kya Piel would take over the game scoring the majority of her points in the quarter.  The other semifinal was Burlington vs Wiggins.  This was a defensive battle and a very physical game.  Wiggins would lead heading into halftime 20 to 16 and their suffocation defense was the reason why.  Burlington would respond in the second half with a 12 to 4 third quarter and lead heading into the fourth quarter 28 to 24.  Burlington would keep their lead the rest of the game, but Wiggins would have one shot at tying the game and sending to OT or winning the game.  Wiggins couldn’t get a shot off and would fall to Burlington 40 to 38.

Championship Saturday got started with Mancos defeating Denver Christian 51 to 33 to win the Consolation Championship.  Claire Goodwin would catch fire in the game hitting 5 three pointers while Teya Yeomans would have 12 rebounds.  Denver Christian couldn’t get the three-ball going in the game but still play tough defense.  Denver Christian was led by Kamiree Fuller in the game.  The third-place game featured Simla vs Wiggins and this game would start out close with the score tied at 6 after the first quarter.  Simla would have take the lead in the second quarter and outscore Wiggins 11 to 5 and would never look back securing the 35 to 22 win.  Kylie Maranville led Simla in scoring with 14 while Tyleigh Fehseke lead Wiggins in scoring.  The State Championship would feature #1 Merino vs #3 Burlington.  Merino would get out the gates hot brining the defensive pressure and forcing over 6 turnovers in the first quarter and taking a 16 to 5 lead.  Merino never looked back after the first quarter and extended their lead at halftime 39 to 20.  Merino was powered by their defense the entire game forcing multiple steals.  Makenna Sutter led all scorers with 21 points while Trinitee Holmes led all Burlington scorers with 21 points. 

Once again Congratulations to the Merino Rams on winning the Class 2A Girls State Championship.