Well-timed winter break sparks Poudre girls hoops’ to first final four since 1978
Poudre was a No. 3 seed in last year’s Class 5A girls basketball tournament and expecting to do big things.
Then Castle View, a No. 6 seed, hit a desperation 3-point shot at the buzzer to send their second-round game to overtime, and blew out the Impalas with a 13-3 advantage in that extra period. Boom. Season over.
In the summer, senior McKenzie McDaniel tore her ACL. Early in the 2013-14 season, McDaniel’s twin, Ashley, appeared to break her hand. Then star Myanne Hamm, also a senior, tweaked her knee.
Meanwhile, Poudre — once again expecting big things out of its season — had started 4-3. Those losses? 41-40 to Dakota Ridge on a last-second 3-point shot Dec. 11, 65-58 to Grandview in double overtime on Dec. 13 and 52-46 to rival Fossil Ridge.
“We did have a little bit of, ‘What’s going to happen next?,'” Poudre coach Curtis Glesmann said Wednesday. “Fossil was kind of the low point. We had a little ‘Woe is me’ feeling, and it was just really tough to deal with as a team.”
So there was perhaps no team in the state that had a better-timed winter break. In Poudre’s case, it was a 19-day stretch which fell just after the loss to Fossil Ridge.
“We talked over Christmas and kind of decided to have a reset,” Glesmann said.
Poudre emerged from the break with wins of 17, 18, 24 and 16 points. McKenzie McDaniel was back after just six months of rehab. (“An amazing rehab,” Glesmann said. “I’ve never seen a kid come back that strong.”) Ashley McDaniel’s injury turned out to be a ligament tear she could play through. Hamm was healthy.
The Impalas did suffer two further one-point losses before the regular season ended — one in overtime at Monarch, another at Horizon — but things started to go Poudre’s way after the break.
“The break was absolutely at a good time,” Glesmann said. “We got healthier, just kind of had a mental regroup and were kind of able to come out strong. We’ve been going good ever since.”
In the summer, Glesmann figured his team would be among the state’s best — so long as they were healthy. Now healthy, the Impalas are. They find themselves in their first final four since 1978, and have already set the school record for most wins in a season (21).
Asked if his team knew how long it’d been since the last time Poudre was in the state semifinals, Glesmann said, “They didn’t know the exact dates, but they kind of knew the recent history. … We knew that we were kind of going into uncharted waters and going to places Poudre hasn’t been before.”
Hamm and the McDaniels have led the Impalas there.
Hamm, a Colorado State recruit, averages 13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.9 steals and 1.6 assists per game.
“A lot of kids will be really good at one or maybe two things in high school, but she does everything well,” Glesmann said. “She can kind of pick her spots and almost be a little bit of a chameleon and provide what we need on any given night.”
Ashley McDaniel is averaging 11.8 points and 5.4 rebounds, while McKenzie McDaniel is at 7.0 points and 4.9 rebounds.
“They’re not a very hard team to coach,” Glesmann said. “Their leadership is definitely a key factor in this run.”
Poudre will play Regis Jesuit in Thursday’s first semifinal at CU which tips off at 7. Regis, the defending champion, is loaded with talent, including six Division I recruits.
“We’re there to win the game. That’s been the goal all along,” Glesmann said. “I thought we would be at this point at some point, having to play Regis. They were the state champs last year, and they have everyone back. We knew they’d make a run, too. So we figured if we wanted to win state, we’d have to beat Regis at some point or the other. I guess Thursday’s the day.”
