COLORADO SPRINGS – Often times, playoff advancement can come down to one timely play. For Pine Creek, it was a Brynae Stewart block of Broomfield’s Olivia Kim as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
The Pine Creek players stood in suspense, looking to see if the referee’s whistle was indicating a foul or the end of the game. The man in the striped shirt waved his arms signaling game over.
No. 15 Pine Creek edged No. 18 Broomfield 44-42 to advance to the Sweet 16 of the Class 6A girls basketball playoffs.
It came off a big defensive play from Stewart, who had been making them all game with the intent of getting Pine Creek (15-9 overall) off and running on the offensive side.
“We use our defense as an offense,” Stewart said. “Once we play good defense and have good energy on defense it carries over to the offense.”
Look no further than the second quarter.
Pine Creek held Broomfield to just three field goals and seven total points in that stretch. LeeKaya Burke-Perryman and Brenna Hallam each knocked down a 3-pointer and got the home Eagles into halftime with a one-point lead over the visiting Eagles.
(Dan Mohrmann/ColoradoPreps.com)
Even coming into the game banged up, Broomfield (18-6) never let the game get away from it. The visiting Eagles took the lead back doing into the fourth quarter thanks to four 3-pointers, two from Olivia Kim and one each from Kayla Rich and Kayleigh Jones.
“It was a tough, gutsy performance out of some girls,” coach Mike Croell said. “They led for most of the game and worked their butts off. It’s always tough to come on the road without your best player. We had another girl that was sick and didn’t even make the trip.”
The best player he was referring to was Sophie Christopher who did make the trip, but with the help of some crutches. So Croell knew he had to rely a lot on Kim, who scored a team-high 10 points, eight of which came in the second half.
For Pine Creek, it was Burke-Perryman who found her groove, scoring 11 of her game-high 14 in the second half. She hit big shots in both the third and fourth quarters that helped Pine Creek regain the lead and hang onto it down the stretch. The only knock on her performance was her free throw shooting. She went 1-for-6 from the charity stripe with each attempt coming late in the fourth quarter.
“It was a little nerve-racking,” coach Janean Jubic said. “I wish we could have knocked some of those down to extend the lead to five or six, then you’re not having to pressure as much.”
She made one with 17 seconds left to make it a two-point, but considering the way Broomfield was knocking down 3-pointers all night (nine of their 13 made field goals were from long range), there was a specific defensive plan for that final possession.
“We wanted to make sure [Jones] and [Kim] didn’t touch the ball,” Jubic said.
The ball did get to Kim underneath the hoop in the closing seconds, but it was Stewart standing between her and the basket. And when the shot went up, Pine Creek’s sophomore forward swatted away the ball and any chance of a Broomfield upset.
Up next for Pine Creek is a Friday road trip to No. 2 Cherry Creek who rolled to a 50-29 win over Chatfield.
