Razor-thin margins in the first half. Cruise control in the second.
Riverdale Ridge is headed to its first Class 4A state girls basketball championship game thanks to sophomore superstar Brihanna Crittendon, who nearly beat defending runner-up D’Evelyn by herself. The 6-foot-3 forward caught fire early, then again late, to score 30 points en route to a 56-34 win for her Ravens inside Denver Coliseum.
Crittendon and her teammates had had this matchup marked on their calendars since they lost to the Jaguars in the Great 8 last year. When the two were set to face off after each won their Great 8 games last week, there were no nerves, but instead palpable energy and excitement.
“This whole year, that’s all we could think about, hoping we get the same rematch,” Crittendon said. “We finally got it, so we put our heads down and worked, and this is just amazing.”
Nearly half of Crittendon’s points came in a 14-point explosion in the first quarter, after which the third-seeded Ravens (24-3) led 19-10. However, No. 2 D’Evelyn (23-4) stayed in it thanks to a grinding style of play which included multiple offensive rebounds and second-chance points.
In fact, the Jaguars ended up taking their first — and what turned out to be their only — lead of the game with just seconds to go in the first half. Peyton Marvel, who led D’Evelyn with 17 points, splashed in a three to take a one-point lead.
Then the energy shifted.
With just two seconds to go, Shay Vigil launched a prayer from beyond half-court and took the lead right back for Riverdale Ridge. It looked good the whole way. Much better when it struck nylon.
“That’s a momentum-changer,” Ravens coach Tim Jones said. “Kid goes out and hits a shot like that and changes the way everybody processes the game. They start to think, ‘If that’s possible, anything is possible.’ So that’s what she did and it fueled us.”
Credit to D’Evelyn, which did well to limit Crittendon’s impact in the second quarter and much of the third. But after Jones changed Crittendon’s role slightly to take her out of the paint and spread the floor, she hit the ground running, scoring 10 more in just 3:30 to close out the third quarter.
In close games like it was up to that point, Jones said the biggest difference between this squad and last year’s is the way it has grown mentally. Last season, he said, his team was “young” and “immature.”
Crittendon felt the same way, last year being the first time any member of the team played in the Coliseum. This time, they were much more prepared, fueled by the desire for their get-back, which they took with ease down the stretch.
Which made it even more poetic when Vigil hit two straight threes to push an 18-point lead to 24 late, flushing any hopes of a D’Evelyn comeback. The half-court shot took a bit of luck, but opened the door to push the pace in the second half. The back-to-back daggers, though, were the remnants of a team ready to slam the door shut after last year’s lessons.
The Ravens will take on the winner of No. 1 Holy Family, which won the title last year, and No. 4 Resurrection Christian, at 5:45 p.m. Saturday.
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