Sports
Colorado basketball playoffs: Windsor girls reach 3rd straight title game – Coloradoan
DENVER — During every Windsor girls basketball playoff game this season, head coach Karin Nicholls has worn a black T-shirt that reads, “Be Great.”
Yet again, Windsor is living up to that.
Whether it’s losing four senior starters, playing in a new 5A classification or suffering midseason injuries, nothing seems to stop this Wizards team.
Windsor (20-7) is back in a third consecutive state championship game after overwhelming No. 8 seed Glenwood Springs 65-35 on Thursday night in the 5A Final 4 at the Denver Coliseum.
The fourth-seeded Wizards got 10 points each from Raegan Johnson and Brooklyn Jiricek to lead a balanced scoring effort, with seven players scoring at least five.
“We’re completely locked in,” Johnson said. “Not every team gets to go to three state championship games, and it’s amazing to see the work pay off again.”
NoCo at the Coliseum:What to know about Fossil Ridge, Windsor basketball teams in Final 4
Experience ultimately won out in a big way.
This was Windsor’s third straight Final 4 berth after finishing as back-to-back 4A runners-up in 2021 and 2022, while it was Glenwood Springs’ first semifinal appearance since 2007.
The Wizards never trailed after an early 6-4 deficit, led by 13 at halftime and ended the upstart Demons’ upset bid early while allowing just two points in a dominant third quarter and ballooning the lead to 25.
Here are three takeaways from another Windsor Final 4 win:
Part of what made Windsor so difficult for the Demons to stop was the offensive versatility.
Like they’ve done all season, no one dominated the ball, meaning the next Wizards bucket could come from anywhere.
“We are a complete team,” Nicholls said. “We’re very unselfish, and we know it’s hard to shut down a group of scorers and not know who is going to score. At these higher levels, you see a lot of one and two-man games, and that’s not who we are.”
Johnson and Jiricek were the only double-figure scorers.
But Hailee Wright and Sam Darnell tallied nine points each. Reyleigh Hess had seven, Willow Sharpee kept the pressure on with six late points and Julia Bohlinger — still relatively fresh off her midseason injury absence — added five.
The Wizards are unrelenting and go 10 deep, mitigating any foul trouble or cold shooting streaks.
“There’s not one person on our bench who I couldn’t count on with any play,” Johnson said. “Every one of us is ready.”
Defense is still Windsor’s calling card, and it showed up again in the semifinals.
While the Wizards did force 17 turnovers, the dominance stemmed far more from a massive rebounding edge.
Windsor doubled up Glenwood Springs 40-20 on the boards, limiting the Demons to just three second-chance points while leading to numerous points on easy transition looks.
“All week long, I hammered them on it until I’m sure they were sick of it,” said Nicholls, who really wanted a 30-rebound edge. “I didn’t feel like they were a great team blocking out.”
The rest took care of itself, as it usually does defensively for an aggressive, swarming Windsor squad.
After making its first couple 3-point attempts to take an early lead, Glenwood Springs rarely had a clean shot over the final 30 minutes.
“This late in the season, there’s a sort of telepathy between us,” Johnson said. “We know how to play together and know how to play as a team.”
Take it back to the top.
Losing four senior starters from consecutive state runner-up teams? No problem.
“I didn’t know what we were going to get coming into the season,” Johnson said. “I knew we had the talent, but I didn’t know if we’d have the camaraderie like we did last year.
“I would wholeheartedly say this team is completely in it.”
And Windsor technically moved up to 5A with the formation of a new 6A classification. All it’s done is land right back in the state title game.
The Wizards’ momentum is unstoppable in Nicholls’ third season, and they are quickly becoming a Colorado powerhouse.
“There’s a lot of pieces that have to fall into place to get back here,” Nicholls said. “We’re ultra focused on finishing the job. It all starts with us.”
There’s no Mullen this time, as the Mustangs moved up to that new 6A class after denying Windsor in the 4A championship game each of the past two seasons.
This time, local rival No. 2 Roosevelt awaits in Saturday’s 5A girls state title game (5:45 p.m.) after dominating No. 3 Durango in the other 5A semifinal.
Johnson said it herself: Three straight championship appearances is a remarkable achievement.
But the final hurdle awaits.
“There’s a special push I want to give to finally hold that gold trophy,” Johnson said.