GREELEY – For the fifth time in school history, and the first since 2009, McClave is living out a state championship dream
The Cardinals beat Idalia 47-33 to win the Class 1A girls basketball title at Bank of Colorado Arena.
“We finally got it done,” Addison Vallejos said. “We’ve been up here at number one, and we’ve never gotten it done. We don’t like that feeling so we didn’t want to end it like that.”
The Cardinals got their fifth championship after a 16-year drought when they last won it all in 2009.
“It feels amazing,” coach Brianne Howe said. “Actually I’m one of the only ones in our locker room without a ring. We were saying my assistant and I, JaLynn Oquist, we are the only two in the locker room that don’t currently have a state championship, either as a player or as a coach so we are just so excited to get one.”
McClave came out of the gates swinging going up 13-6 in the first quarter. Leading the charge was Abrielle Gomez who hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the game up.
“I just wanted to get the energy high,” Gomez said. “So no matter who hit the shots, no matter what shots they were, I just wanted energy high and so being able to do that for our team is really nice.”
Idalia shot a rough 8.3% from the field, and put itself in the doghouse early. The only saving grace for the Wolves was its free throws, where the Cardinals went 4-of-6 at the line.
Idalia shook off the cobwebs in the second quarter, out-scoring McClave 15-11 to help get itself back into the game. Idalia found itself on a hot streak going on an eight-point scoring run.
Krista Wieser hit a deep 3-pointer in the last minute of the half to tie the game, however, McClave took back the lead in the last 10 seconds due to an elegant cross court pass from Ailyn Monarrez-Estrada to Addison Richards for an easy layup.
Both teams locked down in the second half only allowing six points each making it a much different game from the first half. Both teams kept it very close but only one team found their offensive stride in the second half. McClave scored another 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull away and win the championship. It was a complete game on all sides of the ball to win.
The defensive anchor for the Cardinals was Addison Vallejos who finished the game with four rebounds and an astonishing five steals. She played hard and attacked the ball with a passion making sure the team could put themselves in a winning position.
Even while being up the Cardinals didn’t let up and stayed focused on the goal. The team kept playing hard and got it done. The hard work paid off in the very end.
“All these girls have put in so much work behind the scenes,” Gomez said. “No matter if it’s off season, in season every girl works her butt off to be able to be the best they can on that court and so having a bunch of solid players that can do that for us is amazing.”
