Highlands Ranch outlasts Northfield to win 6A girls basketball title

DENVER – Caryn Jarocki hasn’t coached the Highlands Ranch girls basketball team basketball team for decades solely to win titles. She coaches to build young and strong women. Any wins that come along for the Highlands Ranch are just the icing on the cake.

So seeing her players cry and hug each other in the Denver Coliseum after capturing the Class 6A state title on Saturday?

“It makes me want to cry,” she said.

No. 7 Highlands Ranch outlasted No. 5 Northfield 54-51 to claim the school’s eighth state title and first in 15 years.

All of those titles have come with Jarocki, the state’s leader in career girls basketball wins and architect of two three-peats in the 2000s. Saturday’s win was the closest of any of Highlands Ranch’s championship games. Highlands Ranch also lost the 2013 5A title game.

“This team was probably the most fun championship team I ever had because they played freely and they played for each other and they did what we said as coaches,” Jarocki said.

Winning title No. 8 was a little different from the first seven, though.

For one, Jarocki admitted carte blanche that she wasn’t convinced this iteration of the Falcons could reach the mountain top. She knew they had the talent, but wasn’t certain they’d put it all together this year.

Highlands Ranch (25-3) had only three seniors on this year’s roster and six of its players are underclassmen, four of whom are freshmen. Northfield (24-4) boasted six seniors and a distinct size advantage on the court in Saturday’s game.

“They are very athletic and very physical girls, and it’s hard to play against them with my skinny little toothpicks,” Jarocki cracked.

Highlands Ranch led 15-11 after the first quarter but both offense went cold in the second. They combined to go 6 of 26 from the floor and 1 for 10 on 3-pointers in the second quarter.

The Falcons were 2-for-10 on 3-pointers in the third quarter and the Nighthawks, who missed all seven of their 3s in the first half, abandoned the deep game entirely until the game’s waning minutes.

“They were going to faceguard Addie (Moon) and KB the entire game,” said Katie Moon, referring to her twin sister and Kimora Banks-Thomas and later adding that “Other players had to step up and do what they had to do.”

The Falcons were able to do just enough to hold onto its lead as the game went on, despite only taking four shots in the fourth quarter and the Nighthawks finding a groove close to the basket.

Banks-Thomas and Moon hit clutch 3-pointers early in the fourth to give the Falcons a 42-34 lead. Banks-Thomas had a game-high 20 points and Moon, a starter who came back from injury just before the playoffs, scored 15 points off the bench. Jayda Rogers had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Down by three with four seconds left, Northfield took the ball upcourt and Madison Bethel passed to the far corner for to a wide open Delaney Dennis — but the pass was wide left and sailed out of bounds.

Northfield was in its second championship game ever after losing the 5A title match in 2024.

London Taylor led Northfield with 18 points and Dennis added 11.