DENVER – The Mullen Mustangs have extended their stay atop the pinnacle of Class 4A girls basketball in Colorado.
On Saturday at the Denver Coliseum, the Mustangs capped their season with a 44-38 win over Windsor to claim their third straight state championship. The milestone makes the Mustangs the first team to win three consecutive 4A girls basketball titles since Broomfield won five straight in the classification from 2007-11.
“Best feeling ever, honestly,” Mullen Kilah Freelon said. “Everyone kind of doubts us and say that Mullen’s not that good. Getting to show everyone that we are those people and those athletes, I think it’s amazing. And tonight was really a good game for us because we haven’t had much competition like that this season. I was really glad to have that and this game was amazing for us.”
The Mustangs won in it all 2021 and 2018, and might have been playing for their fourth straight title on Saturday had the 2020 championship game, in which they were set to face Holy Family, not been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Saturday’s rematch of last year’s title tilt, second-seeded Mullen (21-6) held the No. 1 Wizards (26-1) to single digits in each of the first two quarters. The Wizards were decidedly undersized against the Mustangs, who blocked five shots in the first half and led 24-12 at halftime.
The third quarter was a different story entirely.
Attempting to win their program’s second title and first since 1994, the Wizards outscored the Mustangs, 19-5, in the third quarter and Alexis Backhaus hit a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to give the Wizards a 31-29 lead to start the fourth.
“It was kind of tight when they came to get that run,” Mullen’s Gracie Gallegos said. “But we knew we just had to bring the energy on defense and get it back on track.”
Windsor led by as many as four in the fourth quarter but Mullen retook a one-point lead with 2:23 left in the fourth on a long 2-point jump shot from Hannah Giacomin, who followed it up with a pair of free throws on the next possession. The Mustangs were able to lock down on defense and close out the game at the free-throw line after that.
"This is the greatest defensive high-school team I think I've seen,” Mullen head coach Frank Cawley said. “It was the basis of everything we do. They didn't panic (when Windsor) went on a run. They kept it together and they played like champions."
A major part of Windsor’s second-half push, especially with Olivia Reed spending time on the bench in foul trouble, Wizards senior Alexis Backhaus led all scorers with 17 points. She scored 12 in the second half.
Mullen sophomore Allison Schwertner led the Mustangs with 11 points, Imani Perez had nine, Freelon scored eight and Giacomin finished with seven.
Mullen now has seven girls basketball championships in the school’s history.
For Windsor, second place was obviously not the outcome the Wizards had hoped for. But after losing 67-44 to Mullen in last year's title game, pushing the Mustangs to the brink the Saturday's rematch may have provided been some affirming consolation.
"We knew we could expose some things in that third quarter," Windsor head coach Karin Nicholls said. "We felt like we were tougher in a lot of ways. We felt like our conditioning was superior, which is what we really try to do. We can out-run people. And, you can see that happening. ... A couple missed buckets and free throws changes the outcome of the game."
