GREELEY – The 1A girls basketball semifinals took place Friday evening inside the University of Northern Colorado’s Bank of Colorado Arena. Flatirons Academy and Briggsdale advanced to the championship game by defeating McClave and Fleming, respectively. The two will play in the 1A girls basketball championship game at 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland.
(2) Flatirons Academy 44, (3) McClave 33
The defending champs are back.
A year removed from winning the first girls basketball title in program history, the Flatirons Academy Bison have returned to the 1A girls basketball championship game with a 44-33 victory over McClave.
“To reach our second-straight title game, it’s a privilege,” Flatirons Academy head coach Mike Durrill expressed. “We have a great team, I have some incredible assistant coaches, and our team just enjoys it. They enjoy each other, and they just have fun out there. I’m just really proud of them.”
The Bison were led on offense by Kenlee Durrill, who scored a game-high 19 points, while right behind her was Emma Cox with 17. For the Cardinals, they were led by nine points each from McKayla Kiniston and Anna Beckett. The loss was their first to an in-state opponent this season.
Both defenses shined early on, as the first points didn’t come until a Flatirons free throw at the 5:30 mark, and the first field goal wasn’t until a Chloe Weber jumper two minutes later to make it 2-1 midway through the first quarter.
The Bison’s first field goal came on a three-point play from Durrill to make it 4-2. Flatirons kept their lead at 6-5 after one quarter of play. They kept the foot on the gas in the second quarter, upping their lead to double digits, 21-11, with about two minutes to the half. The Cardinals did not shy away, however, scoring the next six to get back to within four, 21-17, and played to a halftime score of 25-19.
McClave cut the deficit to three to start the third, but Flatirons had the answer back with another three-point play from Durrill to get the lead back to six, 28-22. McClave kept the pressure on, getting back to within three multiple times, but each time Flatirons had the response to maintain a steady six-point advantage with under three minutes in the third.
At the two-minute mark, Cox completed a three-point play to get the Bison lead back to nine, 37-28, which held into the fourth. The fourth quarter reverted to the defensive slog, as neither team could find a bucket until the 3:42 mark, on yet another three-point play from Durrill to make it 40-28. The Bison lead hovered around double digits the rest of the way and finished with the 11-point margin of victory.
“Today was a battle,” Durrill added. “McClave is a great team. They are strong and aggressive, and they had our number on defense. So, hats off to them, we were just able to do a little more tonight.”
(1) Briggsdale 57, (4) Fleming 27
In a battle of North Central rivals, top seeded Briggsdale rolled to a convincing semifinal victory over Fleming, and a spot in tomorrow night’s 1A championship. The Falcons are making their first appearance in the title game since 2016, where they will seek their first championship in program history.
“This is great for the program,” Briggsdale head coach Colin Nicklas said. “These girls were fifth and sixth graders when that happened in 2016 and they talk about it all the time, and that was their goal to reach this point. After coming up short the last couple seasons it’s been weighing on them a little, It’s been on their mind, and I’m just so proud of them.”
The Falcons, who are the one seed for the second season in a row, roll into the final with an unblemished 24-0 record. Awaiting them in the finals is an all too familiar opponent in the defending champs, who knocked the 2021 No. 1 seeded Falcons out in the semifinals with a 20-point triumph.
The title game will not only be a rematch of last season’s semifinal, but it will also be a rematch between the two teams from earlier this season, as Briggsdale defeated Flatirons Academy, 60-46, in a non-league battle back on Dec. 17.
“(Flatirons) has terrific athletes over there,” Nicklas added. “We got them pretty good in December, I think we caught them kind of early and we played really well, so I don’t expect that tomorrow. We both have high level athoetes, and it’ll come down to who executes best and I’m looking forward to it.”
Briggsdale was led by the Krise’s once again, as Jenna scored 15, and Kylie added 14. For Fleming, who was the 1A state runner-up last season, they were led by Kally Kirkwood, who finished in double figures with 10.
The Falcons came out firing on all cylinders, scoring the first six, and 17 of the first 20, and took a big 19-6 lead into the second quarter. The Falcons didn’t slow down in the second, out-scoring the Wildcats 12-8 to keep a big 31-14 lead into the locker room.
Coming out of the half, the Falcons continued to build on their steady lead, upping it to 42-20 into the final eight minutes of play. It didn’t get any closer in the final quarter, as Briggsdale rolled on to the 30 point victory.