6A Girls Basketball: Valor Christian Wins Fourth State Title

DENVER – The Valor Christian girls basketball team left no doubt as to which was the better team in the Class 6A state championship game on Saturday.

At the Denver Coliseum, the Eagles claimed their program’s fourth girls basketball state title with a 58-44 win over Regis Jesuit. It was an emotional win for the Valor Christian Eagles and their head coach.

“I think there’s a lot of emotion tied up into it,” Eagles head coach Jessica Caldwell said. “I lost my dad in June. That’s why everybody’s crying. He’s why I got into coaching. He’s why I came to Valor. He’s the one that told me about the job position. And so, just to have an opportunity to stand on the sideline to watch these girls live out what God has created them to do is such an honor and a gift to me and I’m so grateful.”

The Eagles certainly played with exceptional passion on Saturday, especially early on.

Dominant in the first half, the fourth-seeded Valor Christian outscored No. 7 Regis Jesuit, 11-2, in the first quarter and 20-5 in the second quarter to take a 31-7 halftime lead. Regis Jesuit senior Hana Belibi scored all seven of the Raiders’ first-half points.

Regis Jesuit outscored the Eagles 37-27 in the second half in an attempted comeback. But facing a Regis Jesuit team that opened the fourth quarter on a 20-0 run to upset No. 3 Legend in the Final Four on Friday and scored 78 points to beat them head-to-head during the regular season, the Eagles committed themselves to defense.

“Our defense is something we take so much pride in. We work on it every day,” Eagles senior Quinn Vansickle said. “It’s definitely one of our key values that our coaches put in us and every day in practice, we work and come in and push each other. Iron sharpens iron and our practices are brutal against each other to prepare us for moments like this.”

Vansickle (18.2 ppg) led the Eagles with 22 points. Sophomore Camryn Gunter noted a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, and sophomore Peyton Jones scored 10 points.

Belibi, who averages 19.24 points and will play basketball at Harvard next season, finished with 26 points to lead Regis Jesuit. She also had 13 rebounds.

Saturday’s championship was Valor Christian’s first since 2021 and its first in the 6A classification, which is in its second year in existence.

To reach the championship game, Valor Christian knocked off No. 1 seed Cherokee Trail in the Final Four on Friday. In the opposite semifinal, Regis Jesuit won by one point over No. 3 Legend.