DENVER – The Mesa Ridge boys basketball team is no stranger to close contests in championship games.

The Grizzlies won by just three points over Air Academy in 2023 to claim their program’s first-ever state title. So when they found themselves with a narrow lead late in Saturday’s Class 5A state championship game at the Denver Coliseum, they knew exactly how they needed to play in order to defend it.

Despite a furious charge from Windsor, the Grizzlies held on to win 57-53 and go back-to-back.

“It just means we’re a program now,” Grizzlies head coach Joel Babbitt said. "That was the goal coming in – it would be nice to win a state championship, but to become a program was the goal. Now, I think everybody knows when they play Mesa Ridge, they’re playing a pretty darn good basketball program.”

No. 4 Mesa Ridge came out hot, outscoring No. 3 Windsor, 19-6, in the first quarter to eventually take a 31-16 lead at halftime. But with Mesa Ridge’s leading scorer, Tevin Riehl, limited by foul trouble, the Wizards made a run in the third, cutting the lead – which was at one point 16 – to three at one point and outscoring Mesa Ridge, 22-15, in the quarter to trail by just eight at the start of the fourth.

Windsor cut the lead to 51-50 with 1:21 left in the game. Mesa Ridge’s Bryce Riehl, who led all scorers with a career-high 30 points, hit a pair of free-throws with 20 seconds left to put the Grizzlies up three. On the next play, Tevin Riehl, who leads the Grizzlies in scoring at 17.4 points per game but was scoreless up to that point, broke free and hit a layup that put Mesa Ridge up five with 14 seconds left.

Windsor’s Tadese Keyworth cut the lead back down to two with a 3-pointer at the other end, but two more free-throws from Bryce Riehl sealed the victory.

“This means everything to us,” Bryce Riehl said. “We went back-to-back. I don’t know, it’s just everything.”

Windsor’s sophomore Madden Smiley (16.1 ppg) led the Wizards with 15 points and John Backhaus scored 14 points.

Saturday was the Wizards’ first title game appearance since 2011. Windsor has not won state since the Wizards won back-to-back titles in 1923 and 1924.

To reach the championship game, Mesa Ridge knocked off No. 1 Northfield in the Final Four on Friday. In the other semifinal, Windsor won by three points over Vista PEAK.