Riverdale Ridge and Legend set for fun 6A girls basketball Final 4 clash

DENVER – It doesn’t matter what level of basketball Riverdale Ridge plays. Brihanna Crittendon plays at a level unmatched.

Despite foul trouble and a late push from Highlands Ranch, Crittendon scored a game-high 21 points to give the Ravens a 41-37 over the Falcons to advance to the Class 6A girls basketball Final 4.

When the Ravens made the jump to 6A after winning the 4A championship last season, Crittendon wasn’t shy about wanting her team to get the final weekend of the season to justify her talent, as well as the talent of the team around her. But this wasn’t an unexpected result in their minds.

“This might surprise some other people,” Crittendon said. “Fourteenth [seed] is something crazy, but hey, we’re going to shock the whole world.”

Crittendon scored six points in the first quarter, but went scoreless in the second while also picking up her third foul of the game.

There was no panic heading into halftime and she knew she had to maintain her composure in the final 16 minutes of play.

“Just stay out of my head,” Crittendon said. “Refs are going to be refs. I can’t control what they call so I just have to keep playing.”

The Falcons tied the game going into the break and made the first basket of the second half to take a 20-18 lead. They led 29-26 at one point, but Crittendon and Ravens turned on the jets at that point.

“We just had to keep everyone together,” she said. “We’ve been down before and come back, especially in tight games.”

Crittendon scored 15 of her 21 in the second half, including a layup as time expired in the third quarter to give Riverdale Ridge a 30-29 lead.

Chloe Parker hit a pair of free throws and Abby Hawkins made a layup to to push the lead to 36-29.

A Kimora Banks-Thomas 3-pointer cut the Riverdale Ridge lead to two, but that’s as close as the Falcons would get.

(7) Legend 67, (2) Valor Christian 59

There’s nothing like a little heartbreak to fuel a quest to the state semifinals. And Legend was full of heartbreak from last year.

The Titans fell short of the 6A title game in 2024 with a loss to Regis Jesuit in the semifinals, so in their quest to win a state title, a win over defending champion Valor Christian is the ultimate confidence boost heading into next week’s Final 4.

“It’s awesome,” Mason Borcherding said. “We know we have some tough opponents coming up, but we’re going to be ready to go.”

The two teams traded blows early in the first quarter with Valor taking a 7-5 lead on a Kate Fuessel 3-pointer. But in the blink of an eye, the Titans went on an 11-0 run, capped with a Borcherding layup.

The senior forward also scored Legend’s final four points of the first half to give them a 30-25 lead at halftime.

All game, the Titans were seemingly a day early and a dollar ahead. They routinely broke a Valor pass to convert on a layup and always had that extra pass that would result in a wide-open 3-pointer or an open cutter in the lane.

Borcherding and Grace Stanley shared a team-high 13 points while Maley Wilhelm and Aislyn Korella had 12. Maile Starnes scored 11. It was a genuine team effort to send the defending 6A champion home for the rest of the tournament.

“We really came together as a team and knew we had to make that extra pass to get great shots,” Borcherding said. “We’ve worked all week and we’ve worked all year for this. We’ve played really good team basketball for sure.”

They’ll have another big test in front of them as they’ll take on Crittendon and Riverdale Ridge in next week’s Final 4.