AURORA | The last time the Grandview boys basketball team had tasted postseason victory came at the Denver Coliseum in the quarterfinals of the then-Class 5A state tournament before the coronavirus pandemic wiped out its chances to win a state title.
The Wolves got back in the win column Tuesday in a home play-in contest in which they downed visiting Castle View 70-53 and got Ryan Turk his first postseason win as head coach since he took over for Michael Rogers.
Senior Breven Anderson attacked the SaberCats’ defense consistently on his way to a game-high 22 points, while junior Noah Sevy excelled in the paint on his way to 18 and senior starters Cole Holtman and Trevor Thomas added eight points apiece for Grandview. The Wolves (13-11) earned a visit to No. 8 Horizon (20-3) Friday night.
“First and foremost I’m happy for these guys, it’s been a long time coming,” Turk said. “We haven’t been in the playoffs in a little bit and these guys who are here now haven’t experienced, so you can hear them lose their minds in the locker room.”
Updated Class 6A boys basketball state playoff scoreboard & schedule, here
Coming off a fourth-place finish in the Centennial League Challenge tournament, Grandview managed to gain separation from Castle View (9-15) in the second quarter when it had an 15-4 advantage to take a 29-18 lead into the break.
A lot of the early start had to do with the play of Anderson, who knocked down two 3-pointers in the first quarter and then commenced to attack the rim the rest of the way.
“I think that was supposed to be our team’s mentality, nobody who is in front of us can stop us, so just go at them,” said Anderson, who has averaged 20 points per game in his last four contests, including a 34-point effort against Cherry Creek.
Sevy scored nine points in each half to help the cause, including six in the fourth quarter after he left the game briefly after a hard fall while going for a rebound.
Led by Evan McKean’s 22 points, Castle View made a few runs to try to get back into the game, but its desperation led to a variety of breakaways for the Wolves off defensive rebounds. Thomas threw down a couple of big dunks to get the crowd going.
“They felt great,” Thomas said with a smile.
Anderson noted that the new playoff format that gives the top 24 teams got byes and has 16 others in play-in contests, allowed Grandview to have a home game that it relished.
“We were 6-2 at home, so we’ve been playing pretty good at home and when we saw we could have a home game, we felt great about it,” he said. “We got to 7-2 at home and now we’re ready to go on the road.”
Indeed, the road for the Wolves now goes through Horizon, the champion of the multi-classification Granite Peaks League and winners of 14 of its last 15 games.
“Our record says we haven’t played that well on the road, but we’re taking the steps mentally and we’re ready for that challenge,” Turk said. “We know Horizon has had a great season, but we’re coming for them. We’re not thinking they are better than anybody we’ve played this year, especially in the Centennial League, so we’re going to come up with a game plan and try to take it to them.”
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2025 CLASS 6A BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT (PLAY-IN)
(25) GRANDVIEW 70, (40) CASTLE VIEW 53
Score by quarters:
Castle View 13 5 13 21 — 53
Grandview 15 14 18 23 — 70
CASTLE VIEW (53)
Evan McKean 7 7-8 22, Braden Monson 1 1-2 4, Mason Orton 5 0-1 13, Bubba Wyatt 0 0-0 0, Blake Graham 0 6-6 6, Addison Webster 2 0-0 4, Javier Hernandez 0 2-2 2, Levi Cottrell 0 2-2 2, Tyson Graham 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 18-23 53.
GRANDVIEW (70)
Noah Sevy 6 6-6 18, Trevor Thomas 4 0-0 8, Cole Holtman 3 1-2 8, Breven Anderson 7 6-6 22, Matthew Samson 1 0-0 3, Cameron Pritchard 1 1-2 4, Braylon Weathersby 3 0-0 6, Jalen Dourisseau 0 1-2 1, Omar Atieh 0 0-0 0, Ganerdene Enkhbayar 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 15-19 70.
3-point field goals — Castle View (5): Mason Orton 3, Evan McKean, Braden Monson. Grandview (5): Breven Anderson 2, Cole Holtman, Cameron Pritchard, Matthew Samson. Total fouls — Castle View 20, Grandview 21. Fouled out — Castle View: Blake Graham. Grandview: Jalen Dourisseau. Technicals — None.
