Girls Basketball: Riverdale Ridge Star Crittendon Closing in on Colorado Career Scoring Record

AURORA – There have been many talented female basketball players in Colorado.

Legendary players include Tracy Hill (Ridgway, 44.2 points per game as senior in 1983), Ann Strother (Gatorade National Player of the Year for Highlands Ranch in 2002), Abby Waner (Gatorade National Player of the Year for ThunderRidge in 2005), and sisters Lauren (First Team All-American at UCLA) and Sienna Betts of Grandview (state record for rebounds). Michaela Onyenwere, also of Grandview, was even the WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Twelve women from the Centennial State have also been drafted into the WNBA.

And yet, Brihanna Crittendon might top them all — certainly statistically. The Riverdale Ridge senior is on pace to shatter Hill’s Colorado record for career points. With 2,879 career points, she’s only 56 points away from breaking the record.

“Brihanna is probably the best of all-time,” said her coach, Tim Jones. “When you look at what she’s accomplished and being in her position, she could’ve gone and joined some of your bigger schools, but she’s been able to step into a space and create a culture for Colorado women’s basketball.”

Hill, who went on to play professionally in Australia, scored a remarkable 2,934 points. Not only could Crittendon surpass that number, she might reach 3,000.

“You have your Sienna Betts and Lauren Betts and a handful of other girls who have been in that space, but when you think statistically she’s going to be Colorado’s all-time leading scorer, it would be really hard to say she’s not the best to ever do it,” Jones added. “She’s going to break the boys and the girls record this year. She rearranged the landscape statistically.”

At an early age, she flashed plenty of potential on the court.

“She was getting doubled by high school kids in seventh and eighth grade (club games),” Jones said. “I kind of knew she was going to be special. How special? I didn’t know we would take it as far as being Colorado’s all-time leading scorer. I knew she would solidify herself in high school basketball. I don’t think you can anticipate what she’s done.”

Crittendon, who stands 6-foot-3, has a laundry list of accolades. Colleges came after her at a young age, as she landed her first Division I offer (now up to 47) at the start of eighth grade, but her coach still didn’t expect her to get to this level.

The University of Texas signee is ranked as the number eight prospect in the 2026 class by 247 Sports.

She is also one of a handful of players who have made the All-Colorado team, honoring the state’s five best players in any classification, the first three seasons of her career. If that wasn’t enough, she has averaged at least 26 points every season of her career.

Crittendon was even named Ms. Basketball Colorado, as the state’s premier player, as a sophomore after Riverdale Ridge won the Class 4A title.

“Outside of her state championship and all her all-states and All-Colorado and all those things, I think her greatest accomplishment is probably the impact she’s had on Colorado basketball,” Jones said. “I think she takes that with pride. You have people walking up to her in airports, younger players wanting to be like Brihanna. I think the impact she’s had on the culture is bigger than any of her individual accolades.”

Crittendon has made quite an impact on Riverdale Ridge, and Colorado basketball, in general. Her accolades are many and college programs have known about her ability for years. After receiving her first scholarship offer in eighth grade, she has picked up 46 more offers, which includes teams like USC, Michigan, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, South Carolina, and Iowa.

The forward, who averaged 31 points per game as a freshman, took official visits to Washington, Colorado, and Tennessee (second-most national championships in women’s basketball). The Texas Longhorns stood out the most.

She will get to test her talents in the most competitive conference in the NCAA.

“I’m super excited,” Crittendon said. “I feel like my game translates really well and I feel really excited to go out and play the best of the best.”

Said Jones: “In the SEC, everybody’s like Brihanna. You get a bunch of girls, like everybody has this mentality of going to the WNBA. I think personally she’ll get faster, she’ll start to change her game a little bit to match the style of play.”

The senior has continued to grow her game, as she often dominates in the paint by scoring, grabbing rebounds, and blocking shots. Now she’s more dangerous as a perimeter player as well, as her 3-point percentage has improved. She is shooting 40 percent from downtown this season.

“You can play her one through five,” said Jones, now in his sixth season at Riverdale Ridge. “She can handle it, she can shoot it, she can score it at all three levels. She’s just a nightmare matchup. I think she handles herself well. She carries a lot of pressure. When you’re the best player in the state and one of the best players in the country, the level of pressure that comes along with that is a little different than what people are used to seeing. She carries it with grace. She’s very mature.”

Nationally, she is well-known. In fact, she was recently named a McDonald’s All-American, a rare accomplishment for a Colorado basketball player.

“That was definitely one of my goals that I set when I was younger, so it’s really a blessing,” she said.

The awards just keep piling up, but Crittendon’s main focus right now is winning another state championship.

Jones built a strong program even before she arrived, as they reached the Sweet 16 in 2022 in 4A. When the superstar was a freshman, they made the quarterfinals. Sophomore year was when they clinched the state title. And then, last year they moved up to the highest classification, 6A, and bowed out to Legend in the semifinals. They hope to earn the program’s second state championship next month.

One thing is for sure though. They have the firepower to beat anyone in Colorado.

Returning honorable mention All-State guards Chloe Parker (Air Force) and Shay Vigil (Fort Lewis College) will be taking their talents to the next level, as well. Another guard, Aziza Abdur-Razaaq, has Division II scholarship offers but hasn’t signed yet.

With such a stacked lineup, the Ravens have blown past their competition in the Rocky Mountain League.

Nonetheless, they will be battle-tested for the state tournament since their nonconference schedule has been challenging. They have played the likes of Mullen (defending 5A champions), Grandview (defending 6A champions), Legend (6A runner-up), and nationally ranked teams Ontario Christian and Sierra Canyon, from California.

Riverdale Ridge is boasting a 16-3 record with only losses to the California teams and Legend.

“We usually try to schedule the most competitive nonconference games to make it more competitive throughout the season,” Crittendon said. “I feel like it really prepares us, because we just really see different looks from different people, more competitive and more talented teams that normally we wouldn’t play until state.”

Although they’ve taken a few losses along the way, the All-American senior has performed well.

“On a national level, she’s proved that she belongs,” Jones said. “If you look at our record, we lost to the number one team in the country and the number eight team in the country and she dropped 30 against both of them.”

Due to the losses though, and a lighter conference schedule, the Ravens are sitting 16th in the seeding index in 6A. Nonetheless, look for them to be one of the top contenders for the state championship. Their coach believes Denver East, Cherokee Trail, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Legend, and Valor Christian could make deep playoff runs, as well.

Crittendon is confident in her team.

“I think we need to play how we play and not let other teams change the pace that we play at,” she said. “We really need to stick together. We’re a really special team, so we just need to stick together when things get tough.”

And so, Riverdale Ridge (founded in 2018) has all the pieces they need to earn another crown. In 2024, they became one of the first teams in the 27J school district to win a state title in over 20 years.

“Being a school of our size, being able to accomplish that was big for our community,” Jones said. “Our softball program did it right after we did it, so I think we created this thing where we showed we can compete at a high level and sports are as big up north as they are down south.”

When it comes to girls basketball, Crittendon gives a lot of credit to the ones who first built the program.

“I think we’re really successful, because of our coaching staff,” she said. “They push us every day. We just find ways to be together on and off the court. I think we work really hard. We’re definitely an overlooked school.”

Jones has a wealth of experience after coaching club basketball for 16 years. He was also an excellent player himself, breaking school records for scoring and rebounding at Adams City before playing for UW-Milwaukee. Interestingly, his daughter, Jadalise Gomez, was the first player to score a basket for Riverdale Ridge. She set school records early on. Brooklyn Charlo was another terrific player, now competing for the University of Memphis.

Jones has never seen a female player in Colorado quite like Crittendon though. She will finish her career in the top 15 in Colorado history in several stats, including career points, single season points, scoring average (second), and field goal percentage (fourth). Her senior numbers are 28.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 3.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game.

“She’s just a generational talent,” he said. “We’ll probably never see another kid, statistically, like that in another 50 years.”