LOVELAND – Two years ago, Holyoke girls basketball coach John Baumgartner had to tell his team that its 2A state semifinal game against Stanford - and the rest of the state tournament - was canceled due to Covid-19.
Saturday night, the Dragons got another shot at the Indians, this time in the state championship game. By withstanding a late rally by Sanford, Holyoke got the result they were hoping for two years ago.
In their second state title game appearance, the Dragons captured the program’s first state championship with a 39-34 victory at the Budweiser Events Center.
“The high is just so unexplainable,” Holyoke senior Lauren Herman said. “It’s just so awesome. That crowd support, that’s the reason we won that game. It’s indescribable right now. It’s an unforgettable moment. We have dreamt of that since we were little kids. We’ve been working on that for the past four years and it’s just unbelievable and that means a lot to us right now.”
Holyoke won it with long-range shooting and a stifling defense that held Stanford to the fewest points it had scored all season.
The Dragons made six 3-pointers, five in the first half alone. Stanford’s previous season low for points was 38. That came in an early-season victory over La Junta.
“My tradition at Holyoke is defense, defense, defense,” Baumgartner said. “Even though we’ve got some offensive players, it’s still defense. We tried man early and then we tried to go more with a zone and it worked out. We just had to contain their shooters.”
Despite leading by double digits in the first half, the Dragons found their lead in jeopardy late in the game. Twice in the fourth quarter, the Indians cut Holyoke’s lead to three points, the second time coming after a 3-pointer by Makenzie Reynolds made it 37-34 with a minute remaining.
Not able to get anything going on the offensive end, the Indians had to foul and Herman nailed a pair to make it a 5-point game in the closing seconds and that proved to be the difference.
“That’s a credit to our kids,” Baumgartner said. “Our girls just hang in there. Even though the coach is going nuts over there, the girls are just calm and it’s nice to have seniors like that and younger kids that step up and play.”
Holyoke got off to a hot start in the first quarter. Elyce Talavera hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening period and the Dragons led 13-5.
After each team scored five points, Holyoke scored eight unanswered to end the quarter.
Holyoke continued its attack in the second quarter with Lauren Herman scoring all 10 points of the period for the Dragons on a trio of 3-pointers and a free throw.
“I’ve been struggling this weekend, but I was just like, let’s go.,” Herman said. “This is our last run. It’s all or nothing right now. We’ve just got to let it go and be confident and that showed tonight.”
By the time the quarter ended, Holyoke had outscored Sanford 10-3 and the Dragons led 23-8 at halftime.
Despite being down by 15 at the break, the Indians mounted a comeback in the third quarter. Trailing 26-10, Sanford scored eight straight points to cut the Holyoke lead to 26-18.
By the end of the period, the Indians had outscored the Dragons 15-7 and cut the Holyoke lead to seven points at 30-23 with eight minutes to go.
Holyoke then held off the late charge by Sanford.
Herman led the Indians, who finished the season record of 25-1, with 14 points. Elyce Viselmeyer and Talavera each had nine.
Brooklyn Reynolds and Cheyenne Caldon each had 10 for Sanford (25-2).
Third place game
(4) Rye 56, (3) Limon 55
Sydney Adamson hit the game-winner with only a couple of seconds left to give Rye a 1-point victory and third place in the tournament.
The Thunderbolts(26-1) bounced back from an 11-point loss, their first of the season, to top-seed Stanford in Friday’s semifinals.
Rye led by five, 37-32, going into the fourth quarter, but the Badgers made a late run and took a 55-54 lead as time wound down before Sydney Adamson’s shot won it for the Thunderbolts.
Sydney and her sister Sophie finished an illustrious high school run together by combining for 43 points. Sydney had 20 and Sophie had 23.
The first half went back-and-forth as Limon led 15-14 at the end of the first quarter and Rye had the lead at halftime, 29-24.
Sydney Adamson had eight of her points in the first quarter while Sophioe had nine of hers in the second period.
Limon (23-4) was led in scoring by Trista Marx. Jentri Marx added 18.