Once glance at the newly refurbished girls basketball record book gave the impression that the 2019-20 girls basketball season might have had one of the deepest pools of talent that Colorado has ever seen.
Records of all sorts fell as the season rolled on and at the end of the year, it was clear that Colorado had put one of the best points guards ever seen on display while also providing a home for an elite player.
From free throw records to team blocks and assist numbers, the 2019-20 season was certainly one for the record books.
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Offensive numbers get the headlines, but the true measure of a hard-working player is their effort on the defensive end of the floor. That was the case for the Far Northeast Warriors. Tosjanae Bonds finished her career as an elite defender and has the numbers to back it up.
She snagged 21 steals on Jan. 31 in a game against Kennedy. That broke the state single-game record (which she owned from the year before) by one. She is the only player in state history to record 20 steals in a game and has done so twice.
She totaled 208 steals through the course of the season which is also a season record. That number helped put her atop the career steals list as she finished with 631. She is the only player to record 600 career assists.
She became the second player in state history to record a quadruple-double in a Feb. 8 win over Denver East. She recorded 18 points, 18 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals.
Aurora West College Prep had some impressive defensive numbers of its own. Daisy Rodriguez tied a state record with 16 blocks in a single game and her her 150 blocks in a single season put her at eighth. The Spartans recorded 283 blocks as a team, the second-most blocks by a team in state history.
A 32-year-old record fell on Jan. 24 when Wash’s Jensen Renquist sank 24 free throws in a single game. Greeley West’s Lesa Morrill set the old record of 23 in the 1987-88 season and it was later tied by Swink’s Taiylor Holland in 2014. Renquist got to the line 26 times and sank all but two of her shots in a 66-61 overtime loss.
Berthoud might most remember its trip to the Final 4 this last year, but its season will always stand in the record books as the Spartans made 395 free throws during the season, more than anyone else in state history. They kept that momentum going in the offseason as they put on a free throw fundraiser to help benefit a local food bank.
The remarkable career of Jana Van Gytenbeek will live on through tall tales and of course all the chapters of the record books she rewrote.
She ended as the career assists leader with 679 and her senior campaign accounted for 208 of those, good enough for fourth on the single-season list.
She cracked the top 10 in a couple of other categories as she finished her career with a 79.67 free throw percentage which is now seventh on the career list. Pueblo West’s Hannah Simental was a tad better at 81.17 percent putting her at fourth. Simental also ended her career shooting 43.95 percent from 3-point range to place eighth all-time.
Van Gytenbeek also ended her career with 217 career state tournament points. St. Mary’s guard Josephine Howery matched that very number and the two all-time greats are tied for 10th in that category.
Denver South’s Carly Dilworth ended her career as one of the greatest 3-point shooters in state history. She finished her career with a 44.36 3-point percentage to finish one spot ahead of Simental at seventh on the career list. Dilworth also tied the single-game 3-point percentage record by making all seven shots to go 100 percent. Green Mountain’s Jayda Maves sank all six of her 3-point attempts on Dec. 18 to also tie the record.
Dilworth also (briefly) held the single-game 3-point record as she sank 11 shots in Jan. 17 to set a state mark. That number was topped the very next day by Alamosa’s Emily Lavier, who hit 12. Dilworth ended her career with 232 career 3-pointers, 10th all-time.
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Notables:
- Grandview recorded 513 team assists, third for team assists in a season.
- St. Mary’s made 717 field goals through the course of the season to come in at sixth for field goals made by a team in a season. The Pirates also make 207 team 3-pointers to come in for a tie in seventh place.
- Thornton’s Shamahra Henderson had 24 double-double this last season tying for second most in a single year. She also ended her career with 54 which puts her seventh all-time.
- Valor Christian’s Reagan Beers shot 65.06 percent from the field this last season to break into 10th place in that category.
- Denver South’s Timiya Guevara made her way to the free throw line 23 times in a Feb. 10 game against Golden. That’s the ninth most attempts in a single game. She made 20 of them as the Rebels won the game 78-59.
- Ever since her freshman year at Lamar, Cali Clark was a rebounding machine. She combined for 1,194 career rebounds for Lamar and Cherry Creek to slide into the fifth spot on the all-time career rebounds list.
- George Washington’s Jaida Redwine is a name to watch in the future. Her 423 points ties her for seventh most as a freshman.
