The Class 4A boys basketball Final Four was played on Friday night at the Denver Coliseum. Pueblo South and Lewis-Palmer both won their respective games and advanced to the state championship game and will face off in the championship game at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
(1) Lewis-Palmer 79, (5) Pueblo Central 65
DENVER – Sometimes having a well-balanced team can make a coach forget how special one of his players is. Then, on the biggest stage at the most important time that player shines bright.
Lewis-Palmer’s Cam Lowe put up a remarkable 38 points as the top-seeded Rangers beat Pueblo Central 79-65 to advance to the Class 4A boys basketball state championship game. This is the first title game for the Rangers (26-1 overall) since 2019. They had several special players on that roster, but coach Bill Benton doesn’t want to talk about them.
This is a journey for a new and players like Lowe are shining on the state’s top stage.
“That was a Final 4 performance,” Benton said. “On this stage, big players make big plays. He didn’t force it. I loved his decision making. He knew when he had his attacks and he knew when he had his looks.”
The attack came early and often. Lowe led the Rangers at halftime with 14 points but he only made three field goals. The rest came on free throw attempts that came not necessarily by design but by circumstance.
“The opportunities came,” Lowe said. “We broke the press and turned three-on-two to two-on-one and we got to go up strong. I was going up strong and I got fouled.”
Lowe made it to the free throw line 16 times through the course of the game and converted on every attempt.
Benton knew his team had to control the pace of the game. While it was quickened up a bit on offense because of the pressure the Wildcats (23-4) tried to dial up, he made a move on defense that was very uncharacteristic of what the Rangers like do.
“That was the most zone we’ve played in probably my nine years as a head coach here,” Benton said. “We’ve used it sporadically but we knew we had to change the pace.”
Part of changing that pace was slowing down Kadyn Betts who led the Wildcats with 32 points. The standout forward tried to score in every which way. He converted on shots down by the basket, made a couple of 3-pointers and got his fair share of free throw attempts.
Syris Williams added 13 but when crunch time came in the fourth quarter, it was the Rangers who started pulling away. One of the big keys in beating Central, or most teams from Pueblo, is the ability to match the physicality. The one advantage that the Rangers had Friday, and will have in the state title game against Pueblo South, was the physical bodies needed down low.
“It’s the grit that we carry and the way that we play,” Rangers center Brady Jones said. “The pace that we go by is what gets us through.”
The Rangers will stick to their game plan on Saturday which is team-driven basketball. Lowe led the scoring, but Jones had 13 and Eli Robinson had a quiet 12. Seeing three Rangers in double figures isn’t rare and it’s a great way to win basketball games on the final weekend of the year. And it also helps when Lowe is capable of putting up big numbers.
“We have five, six, seven guys that can play,” Lowe said. “I have the strength to play in transition. Their style kind of helped me out and once I got it going, my teammates started feeding me. I didn’t feel like it was this crazy performance where I was shooting every shot, I just thought it came to me.”
And if it comes to him like that on Saturday, a state championship could very well come back to Monument.
(2) Pueblo South 67, (5) Frederick (56)
The Pueblo South boys basketball team is on the verge of running and gunning its way to the program’s first title in 21 years and a place in the record books as Colorado’s first high school boys basketball team to win it all with a female head coach.
In the Class 4A Final Four on Friday at the Denver Coliseum, the No. 2-seed Colts won 67-56 over No. 6 Frederick. That win pushed the Colts into the state semifinals for the second straight year.
With that big penultimate step taken, there’s only one left for the Colts to take.
“Coach said it in the locker room after the game, ‘The job’s not finished,’” Colts senior Jace Bellah said. “We’re ready to go. We’re going to have a tough game tomorrow and we’re going to be preparing all the way up until the game starts.”
The Frederick Warriors (21-5), who upset defending champion Mead in the Great 8 to make their first Final Four appearance since they won a state title in 1956, matched the Colts (27-0) up and down the floor early on. But despite trailing 13-8 after one quarter, Pueblo South caught fire and outscored the Warriors, 20-4, in the second to lead 28-17 at halftime.
“We had a good game plan all week but we had a few gambles in the first quarter,” Colts junior Ray J. Aragon said. “But in the second quarter, we adjusted quick and our team got out front and finished. I think when we started rebounding and boxing out, we got on a run and I told the team that’s when we would get ahead going into halftime.”
The Colts’ second-quarter run turned out to be the separation they needed, as they were able to main a double-digit cushion throughout most of the second half and enter Saturday’s championship game unbeaten. Colts senior guard Terrance Austin led all scorers with 25 points, shooting 10 for 13 from the field. Maurice Austin scored 17 points for the Colts and Mario Esquivel added 10.
Bryce Conover led Frederick with 17 points. Matias Aldana and Jacoby Conway each scored 10.
Positioned to make a run at history, Colts head coach Shannan Lane said any potential personal achievement isn’t top of mind. In fact, she and the Colts remain solely focused on defeating No. 1 Lewis-Palmer in the 4A boys title game at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“It’s funny because I haven’t thought of that,” Lane said. “I just don’t go there. I’ve been on this floor too many times and lost in that state title game. Five years ago, we (Pueblo South’s girls team) were here five times in a row and we lost to Evergreen twice and we lost to Mullen before I hung it up for a year and came back. I really think winning state’s a lot of luck. You have to catch fire at the right time, you do. I know they’ll come out tomorrow night and fight.”