Class 3A: What not to forget from the last teams standing
It’s Day 3 of our look back at the teams and standout players who were left standing in the state’s girls basketball tournaments when the advance of the coronavirus prematurely ended the season. We looked at the final two Class…
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Continue ReadingIt’s Day 3 of our look back at the teams and standout players who were left standing in the state’s girls basketball tournaments when the advance of the coronavirus prematurely ended the season.
We looked at the final two Class 4A teams remaining and names like Megan Pohs Megan Pohs 5'3" | PG Mullen | 2021 State CO of Mullen and Alyssa Wells Alyssa Wells 5'9" | SG Holy Family | 2021 State CO of Holy Family. Then did the same in 5A, where the finale between Cherry Creek and Grandview featured four of the top 10 players from the 2020 class as well as the top-ranked junior and sophomore.
Now let’s go to 3A, where St. Mary’s, Pagosa Springs, Centauri and Eaton punched its tickets to the Final Four before the high school sports freeze.
Here are a few notables that shouldn’t be forgotten from the 3A foursome.
The St. Mary’s offensive wrecking ball
The Pirates were 24-1 — with their lone loss against defending 5A champ and one of the two 2020 finalists in Cherry Creek — and averaged a ridiculous 74.9 points per game coming into their semifinal game against Pagosa Springs.
Josephine Howery Josephine Howery 5'9" | PG St. Mary's | 2020 State CO and Seneca Hackley Seneca Hackley 5'9" | SG St. Mary's | 2020 State CO , the 11th and 12th best senior prospects in the state per Prep Girls Hoops, led what was an unstoppable force through the 3A field.
Howery is a gifted ball handler, an elite shooter — probably just easier to call her an all-around playmaker. She averaged 21.2 points on 50 percent shooting in her final season under coach Mike Burkett. And stuffed the stat sheet elsewhere, too, with 4.6 assists, 6.8 rebounds and 4.1 steals.
[player_tooltip player_id="95026" first="Josephine" last="Howery"]After helping lead the Pirates to two straight 3A titles and setting them up for a chance at a third, the senior heads to the Colorado School of Mines. She joins former players on her club team, BC Denver, in Sammy Van Sickle (Ralston Valley), Ashley Steffeck (Fossil Ridge) and Denali Pinto (Fairview).
She finished her career with 1,672 points, 546 rebounds, 352 assists and 329 steals.
Hackley, the other punch of the Pirates’ one-two heavy hitters, averaged 16.2 PPG on 56 percent shooting. The shooting guard will join Grandview’s Tomia Johnson Tomia Johnson 5'6" | CG Grandview | 2020 State CO , the state’s eighth best senior prospect, at Florida Gulf Coast.
Over her career, her scoring average and shooting percentage rose in each of her four years. She ended with 1,183 points.
Who could have played spoiler?
Pagosa Springs would have had the first chance at delivering a stunning upset to the top team in the classification.
Hailey Griego Hailey Griego 5'9" | SF Pagosa Springs | 2020 State CO was a big part of Pagosa Springs’ run to the semifinals. Her high basketball IQ as well as her ability to score and take over on the glass beamed brighter as the tournament went on.
She had 19 points in a 40-point win over Colorado Springs Christian in the first round and went for 17 and 12 boards in a Sweet 16 win over Manitou Springs.
[player_tooltip player_id="95028" first="Seneca" last="Hackley"]She’s ranked the 88th senior prospect in the state.
If Pagosa Springs didn’t spoil things for St. Mary’s, either Centauri or Eaton would have had a chance in the finals at the University of Denver.
Centauri had a balanced scoring attack headed by Mia Garcia (10 PPG), Brenna McDaniel (9.2) and Courtney Hamilton (8.8), who came on strong late in the season with double-digit outings in six of her final seven games.
Eaton, the only double-digit seed remaining at No. 10, was similar. Nakaiya Kuskie led the way with 10.9 PPG, followed by Ahana Leffler’s 9.3 and Addie Randel at 9.2.
Keep an eye out on Leffler going forward as the sophomore left a ringing end to her season with 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting in a quarterfinals win over Brush.