All-time prep basketball royalty graced every court Grandview senior Sienna Betts appeared on in the 2024-25 girls basketball season, which concluded with her hoisting the Class 6A state championship trophy for the third time in a four-year varsity career.
Betts and sophomore teammate Ava Chang give title shine to the 2024-25 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Basketball Team, which was picked by the Sentinel in conjunction with balloting of area coaches.
The city’s top five includes another set of teammates — senior Delainey Miller and junior Aaliyah Broadus of Cherokee Trail — plus Regis Jesuit senior Iliana Greene.
Full 2024-25 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Basketball Teams, here
The most accomplished basketball player in Aurora history — male or female — at the prep level is Betts, whose resume is simply massive. She is now a three-time state champion after leading the Wolves to the 6A state crown with a decisive 61-39 victory over Legend at the Denver Coliseum, where she also helped Grandview win in 2022 as a freshman (alongside older sister, Lauren) and in 2023 as a sophomore.
Individually, Betts is also a three-time Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year, Naismith High School First Team All-American, recently crowned Morgan Wooten National Player of the Year, Most Valuable Player of the McDonald’s All-American Game and signee with UCLA, a Final Four team in the NCAA women’s tournament.
Betts finished her career as Colorado’s all-team leader in rebounding for any player, male or female, with 1,508 and that goes with 2,022 career points. That helped the 6-foot-4 frontcourt player to a state record 81 double-doubles (in 105 games played). The Centennial League Player of the Year led Aurora area players in scoring (23.0 ppg), rebounding (16.5 rpg, which led 6A by 1.2 per contest), assists (4.9 apg) and blocked shots (3.4 bpg).
The steady play of seniors aside from Betts (Deija Roberson, Maya Smith and Leiava Holliman) were crucial to the title run for coach Josh Ulitzky’s team — which went 19-1 against Colorado teams and finished with an overall record of 25-3 — but the progression of Chang helped immeasurably.
The Wolves needed more scoring when teams chose to try to (mostly unsuccessfully) stop Betts inside and Chang provided just that, especially with her outside shooting. She drained 50 3-pointers on the season, while she finished consistently in transition as well, which combined for a scoring average of 14.5 points per contest that ranked fourth among Aurora players and was close to double the 7.7 she averaged as a freshman.
Chang’s season-high of 26 points came in Grandview’s Centennial League Challenge championship game win over rival Cherry Creek, while she averaged nearly 15 points per game in five playoff contests.
On top of that, Chang — like Betts an All-Centennial League first team pick — finished third among area players in assists with an average of 4.3 that put her eighth in 6A in the category. She also picked up 2.3 steals per game and added 4.3 rebounds per contest.
Cherokee Trail — which made it to the 6A semifinals last season — had another strong season that ended with an agonizing 54-52 overtime loss at Highlands Ranch in the Sweet 16.
Coach Tammi Traylor-Statewright’s Cougars (who finished 15-10) nearly pulled that game off with the heroics of Broadus, who poured in 26 points to come just shy of her season-high of 29. A scoring void was created with the tragic injury to senior guard Talia Strode, who averaged nearly double figures in the first 15 games of the season, and Broadus helped step up to fill it.
Broadus finished with an average of 13.8 points per game that was sixth-highest among Aurora area players and she added 7.2 rebounds for good measure, which helped her to six double-doubles. Broadus also contributed 2.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game for the Cougars on her way to a All-Centennial League first team nod.
Another all-league first team performer was Miller, who was slowed by injury a bit this season, but still contributed in just about every category for Cherokee Trail. Her scoring averaged dipped three points from the previous year to 8.8 points per contest, but she still scored in double figures 11 times.
Every other statistical category improved for Miller — who is headed to Northern Arizona University — as she set a career best in rebounding with an average of 7.8 per contest, while her passing improved as well and she increased her assists average to 3.2 per contest.
Greene was one of the key holdovers from a Regis Jesuit team that went to last season’s 6A state championship game and she helped coach Jordan Kasemodel’s team remain among the top teams in the state despite the graduation of two prime talents and top scorers in Hana Belibi and Coryn Watts.
The diminutive guard had a penchant for hitting big shots and often those came from the perimeter, as Greene knocked down 68 3-pointers that ranked her fourth in the 6A classification, just 10 behind the state leader. A 42 percent shooter from distance, Greene made at least one 3-pointer in 23 of the 25 games she played in with a high of six in a close late season Continental League win over Rock Canyon.
Greene’s scoring average was in double figures again at 12.5 points per game which led her team by a small margin over fellow All-Continental League first team selection Jane Rumpf. Greene also averaged 3.2 assists per contest and 1.2 steals.
Regis Jesuit lost to eventual state finalist Legend in the Sweet 16 and finished 18-7.
SECOND TEAM: There is not much of a drop-off between the All-Aurora first and second teams, as the second unit features a third Cherokee Trail player in senior Madeline Gibbs, who knocked down a team-high 38 3-pointers (on her way to a career-high average of 9.2 points per game) and made 108 triples in 80 varsity games, plus a second Regis Jesuit player in Rumpf, a University of Wyoming commitment who posted averages of 12 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
