FORT COLLINS – Simla’s girls basketball team served notice on Saturday night – the Cubs are going to be a problem for the foreseeable future.

The Cubs started three freshmen in the Class 2A state championship game against two-time defending state champion Merino. The moment was never too big for the underclassmen as Simla capped a perfect season with a 55-45 triumph over the Rams at Moby Arena on the Colorado State University campus. It was the program’s first title in the sport since 2011.

“Our freshmen are some of the best freshmen I’ve ever played with,” said Katie Gotschall said, the Cubs’ lone senior. “They just have a heart of gold and they want to win.”

Freshman Kinlee Cox led Simla (28-0) with 15 points and Gotschall added 10, all in the second half.

Merino (26-2) saw both of its losses come to Simla, both by similar margins. The Rams were making a fourth consecutive appearance in the 2A title game.

“They have a heck of a program,” Simla coach Doug Cox said. “The Piel girls (Kya and Delaney) are competitors – all of them are competitors. They play at such a high level, that our goal was to get to that point where we never take a quarter off – just like Merino always has.”

Simla used a 10-0 run to open things up early in the second quarter. Behind a big first half from Kinlee Cox and sophomore Haylee Easler, the lead grew to as many as 12 points before the Rams closed to within seven at the half. Merino freshman Delaney Piel had 12 of her game-high 19 points in the first half.

With Rams senior Jay Lynch – who had a monster 20-point, 16-rebound performance in the teams’ first meeting – in foul trouble, the Cubs turned to its interior game in the second half. Gotschall and freshman Brynlee Amendt repeatedly drove inside, and though the Rams stayed as close as four points into the fourth quarter, a Gotschall bucket with three minutes, 31 seconds remaining all but closed the door on a comeback.

“The first half we were fine taking the open shots,” Cox said. “The second half we saw that they got in foul trouble, and our goal was to attack and try to get more points in the paint.”

Jadelynn Powell knocked down a trio of 3-pointers for Merino in the second half to keep the Rams close.

After the game, Gotschall was beaming as she held the championship trophy in her arms, talking about how long the program had waited for this moment.

Going out with a perfect record is a moment players can only dream of, but as Cox said, the focus was never on that accomplishment.

“The thing with these girls, we never look at our record,” the coach said. “There was always one game at a time. As you know in any sport, even in basketball, (a perfect season) doesn’t happen very often.”