The girls basketball playoffs start later Tuesday night for teams in the Class 6A, 5A and 4A.
The top five seeds in 6A are No. 1 Cherokee Trail, No. 2 Cherry Creek, No. 3 Legend, No. 4 Valor Christian and No. 5 Pine Creek.
5A: No. 1 Air Academy, Roosvelt, Mead, Northfield, Windsor.
4A: No. 1 Holy Family, D’Evelyn, Riverdale Ridge, Resurrection Christian, Pagosa Springs.
The potential for those teams to make deep postseason runs is high, so for the focus for this week’s look-in on big-school girls’ hoops, we dive into a couple “sleeper” teams from each of the three classifications.
Class 6A
No. 8 Grandview: This one might be cheating, though Grandview is not a top-five seed.
UCLA commit Sienna Betts was the best player in the tournament when the Wolves won the title as an 11 seed a year ago. And, yes, she’ll be the best player in this bracket once again.
Led by Betts (22.5 PPG, 15.7 RPG), the Wolves went 13-10 in the regular season, with six of those 10 losses coming to teams out of state.
They ended the regular season with a three-point loss at Cherokee Trail followed by a 14-point win over No. 9 Mullen.
Grandview is home against No. 25 Chatfield in the opening round. The winner will face No. 9 Mullen/No. 24 Monarch.
No. 20 Broomfield: The Eagles (19-4) ended the regular season with nine straight wins, thanks in part to a defense allowing just 33.3 PPG this winter.
Sophomore Paige Gilpatrick (9.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG) is part of a balanced scoring attack. She’s scored in double figures in six of her last eight games, including a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double against Erie last week.
The Eagles offense, in general, is driven by the 3-ball. They’re 11-1 when they’ve hit seven or more 3-pointers in a game this season. Over their last six games, they averaged 9 1/3 per game.
The early road isn’t easy, though. Broomfield is at No. 13 ThunderRidge in the first round. The winner of that gets No. 4 Valor Christian/No. 29 Poudre.
Class 5A
No. 6 Green Mountain: The Rams (17-6) had a tough February schedule to close the regular season. And it went pretty well.
They split with 4A No. 2 D’Evelyn, with the loss coming in overtime. The Rams then beat 5A No. 16 Evergreen and No. 11 Standley Lake and lost to No. 12 Skyview.
Defense is key for the Rams, who are 16-1 when allowing 40 or fewer points this season, and 1-5 when not.
They host No. 27 Thompson Valley in Round 1, then get the winner of No. 11 Standley Lake/No. 22 Longmont.
No. 22 Longmont: The Trojans (13-10) have an elite star in Savannah Pohl (12.1 PPG, 7.4 RPG), who has scored in double figures in five of her last six games.
The Trojans are 10-4 when Pohl scores 12 or more points in a game this season.
Longmont, which is on the road against No. 11 Standley Lake in Round 1, has faced elite teams throughout the winter.
Seven of its 10 losses on the year have come to 5A No. 3 Mead (twice), No. 5 Windsor (twice), No. 4 Northfield and 4A No. 1 Holy Family (twice).
Class 4A
No. 6 Colorado Academy: The Mustangs (18-5) have lost to a 4A team just once so far this season — No. 4 Resurrection Christian, 45-43, last week.
Their other four losses on the year are to 6A No. 3 Legend, No. 7 Regis Jesuit, 5A No. 4 Northfield and No. 6 Green Mountain.
Anna Johnson (14 PPG) finished the season nicely, scoring 22 against Prospect Ridge, and 15 against Kent Denver last week.
They host No. 27 Valley in Round 1, and the winner gets No. 11 Lutheran/No. 22 Sterling in the second.
No. 20 Berthoud: The opening-round game between the Spartans (8-15) and No. 13 Jefferson Academy could be one of the best in the bracket.
JA plays good defense. Berthoud has sophomore Avery Pfohl.
Pfohl averaged 19.8 points per game this winter and has gotten better as the year has gone on. She put up 25.8 PPG in six games in February, including 48 against Weld Central at the start of the month.
This year, the Spartans’ offense put up 47 PPG. JA has allowed just 31.7.
The winner gets No. 4 Resurrection Christian/No. 29 The Academy.