GREELEY – For the second time in one night, a McClave basketball team hoisted championship gold.

The boys team beat Flatirons Academy in dominating fashion with a score of 59-43 to win the Class 1A boys title just hours after the girls claimed a championship of their own.

They came, saw and conquered.

The Cardinals left nothing on the table when it came to playing for a championship. Flatirons had the lead only one time in the game when they led by 2 in the first two minutes of the game.

It was a complete performance from start to finish. The Cardinals outscored Flatirons 21-12 in the first quarter shooting with a 56.3% from the floor. They went 9-of-16 on shots. Flatirons was held to 12 shots only nailing five of them to start the game.

The closest any team got to beating McClave this playoffs was Elbert who lost by 15 points. McClave didn’t let Flatirons hang with them at all, in the third quarter the Cardinals were up by 24 at one point.

“You know some of the games are closer than that, you know near the end you get fouls, you get free throws,” Tuff Kelley said. “But I think we’re just all around the best team here honestly, and I think we proved that tonight.”

For a kid named Tuff, he played tough. He scored 15 points on 12 shots and one free throw. Kelley controlled the boards for the team grabbing 10 rebounds during the game. Kelly played the role of air defense blocking a total of four shots, three of them in the first half.

Kelley wasn’t the only one playing lights out on the court for McClave, the freshman Myles Northrup led the team in scoring with 17 points Myles had a perfect day at the freethrow line hitting all six of his attempts. Northrup played 30 minutes, he had an electric showing that kept the crowd on its feet all game.

“This is exactly what I pictured” Myles said “I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else. We have a great group of kids, and I know can do a lot of great things.”

McClave had everyone on its side, the stands were loud with excitement, the bleachers never stopped rocking from all the jumping and cheering. The girls team even came back out to sit in the stands even taking their championship trophy from the girls game into the crowd to support the boys.

Coach Brianne Howe of the girls team was even out there cheering on her son, Drew, who also plays basketball for MCClave. The team is very close with their fans and with each other.

“I’ve never been around a better group of kids and I mean this I’m not just saying this because we won,” coach Jeremy Mallard said. “I’ve never been around a group of kids this close that care about each other this much and it’s just so fun to be a part of.”

Kelley has found brotherhood within his team. Winning a championship with his brothers was something special. No matter how sweet the taste of victory this year, Kelley’s not quite satisfied with just one.

“We need another one next year.” Kelley said.

And they have every intention of going out and getting it.