5A Girls Basketball: Lutheran Wins Sixth State Championship

DENVER — Lutheran senior Makenna Mudd’s final made basket of her prep career was without question her biggest.

Mudd’s 3-pointer with 2:10 left in the fourth quarter ended Green Mountain’s short-lived lead in the Class 5A girls basketball state championship game Saturday night at the Denver Coliseum. The 3-pointer put the top-seeded Lions up 29-27. 

“Taking that 3-pointer, I knew I had the whole team behind me and all our students behind me,” Mudd said. “I put in the work, and my teammates have put in so many hours of work to get us here.”

Lutheran held on for a 33-27 victory, not allowing No. 2 Green Mountain to score in the final three minutes.

It was a defensive performance for the ages. The Rams were just 1-for-13 from 3-point range in the loss that ended a 24-game winning streak for Green Mountain (26-2).

“We just needed to know who their shooters were and went to close out,” Lutheran junior Isla Koffman said of the defensive strategy that held Green Mountain to a season-low scoring output. 

Koffman had a game-high 16 points and 11 rebounds to pace the Lions (25-3). Senior Berkley Schneider was key for Lutheran late. Schneider was 4-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final minute to seal the victory.

“I’m in shock,” Koffman said after the Lions’ first girls basketball state championship in a decade. 

Green Mountain junior Ella Cockrum was the lone Ram in double-digit points with a dozen. Senior Peyton Coil gave the Rams the lead 27-26 withthree3 minutes to play, but it would be the final points for the two-time defending 5A/4A/3A Jeffco League champions.

“It’s just the way we play as a team. We have faith in one another,” said Mudd, who finished with five points, all in the second half. “Even when we went down we had faith that we would still win this game.”

It was the second meeting this season between the top two seeds in the 5A state tournament. Green Mountain got the better of Lutheran, 48-41 in overtime, on the Rams’ home court Dec. 18. 

“I watched it so many times,” Koffman said of the first go-around with Green Mountain. “We didn’t do in the first time. I’m just glad we got revenge and got the win.”

At lot has changed from that game before Winter Break.

Green Mountain’s leading scorer Kantyn Pearson — 5A/4A/3A Jeffco League Player of the Year a season ago — suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Rams’ regular-season finale on Feb. 16. Despite the loss, the Rams advance to their first ever Final 4 on the hardwood.

Lutheran went on a 20-game winning streak after the loss to Green Mountain, including edging Standley Lake 38-36 in the 5A semifinals Thursday to prevent an all-Jeffco 5A title game.

It’s the Lions’ sixth girls basketball state championship in the school’s history. It had been a decade since the Lions claimed the 3A title in 2016.

“We knew we were playing our best basketball right now,” Mudd said. “We had so much confidence coming in that we were the better team. We just stuck together through it all.”

It was the first trip to a girls basketball state championship game in the 53-year history of Green Mountain High School that opened its doors in 1973. The Rams had won nine girls sports athletic state championships, the latest being a 4A girls lacrosse state championship in 2022.