AURORA | The Class 5A and 6A girls basketball playoffs opened on Tuesday and four of the area’s six qualifiers advanced to Friday’s Sweet 16 round.
Cherokee Trail, the top seed in the 6A tournament, will play for the second time on its home floor as it plays host to No. 14 Highlands Ranch (15-9) at 6 p.m. with a chance to play in the Great 8 on the line. The Cougars (22-2) have been stopped in the Sweet 16 round in 5A in 2010 and 2020, when the tournament had an extra round, as well as last season in the first year in 6A.
Coach Tammi Traylor-Statewright’s Cherokee Trail team got eight points or more from five different players in a 69-28 first round win over No. 32 Fountain-Fort Carson. Junior Madeline Gibbs paced the Cougars with 16 points, while senior Damara Allen added 13 and junior Delainey Miller added 10.
Cherokee Trail is 0-2 all-time against Highlands Ranch in the postseason (losing in the second round in 2014 and 2022), but won regular season contests against the Falcons the past two seasons (56-45 last season and 59-40 in the season opener this year). The winner of this matchup secures a spot in the Feb. 29 Great 8 round at the Denver Coliseum against either No. 8 Grandview or No. 9 Mullen.
The next-highest seed among Aurora teams remaining is No. 7 Regis Jesuit, which was responsible for the elimination of one area qualifier as it defeated 26th-seeded Eaglecrest 53-34 in the first round. The Raiders (17-7) rebounded from a loss to Legend with the Continental League championship on the line and got 17 points from senior Hana Belibi, 13 more from senior Coryn Watts and 12 from junior Jane Rumpf to top the Raptors.
Coach Jordan Kasemodel’s team is back at home at 6 p.m. in an intriguing Sweet 16 matchup with No. 23 Denver East, which is coach by Carl Mattei, who won 399 games with the Raiders before he was let go by the school three seasons ago. Mattei’s Angels (16-8) have won 11 straight games, including a 38-32 road upset of No. 10 Fruita Monument in the opening round.
Regis Jesuit (with Mattei at the helm) defeated Denver East in the Sweet 16 in 2011 and 2019 in the only two previous postseason meetings between the teams. The winner of this matchup moves into the Great 8 Feb. 29 at the Denver Coliseum against either No. 2 Cherry Creek or No. 15 Arapahoe.
Eighth-seeded Grandview took the first step toward its quest to win a third consecutive championship in the state’s largest classification with a 62-35 first round win against No. 25 Chatfield.
Coach Josh Ulitzky’s Wolves (14-10) returns to their home floor at 6 p.m. for a matchup with a familiar opponent in No. 9 Mullen (16-8), which it split two games with during the regular season. The Mustangs prevailed 56-54 on their home floor in Centennial League play Jan. 25, while the Wolves triumphed 47-33 on Feb. 17 in the third-place game of the Centennial League Challenge.
That win for Grandview delivered career win No. 400 for Ulitzky (see story, here).
Grandview will play Mullen for the first time in the playoffs as the Mustangs have traditionally played in a lower classification before joining 6A last season. The winner will advance to play the Cherokee Trail-Highlands Ranch winner at the Denver Coliseum Feb. 29.
Aurora’s lone qualifier for the 5A playoffs is Vista PEAK Prep, which holds the No. 9 seed.
Coach Howard Payne’s Bison (18-6) are in the Sweet 16 for the third time in the past four seasons and got there this time via a 53-35 home victory over No. 24 Durango. That sent Vista PEAK Prep into a 6 p.m. road contest at Frederick (18-6).
A win would earned Vista PEAK Prep its first chance as a program to play at the Denver Coliseum in the Feb. 29 Great 8 round, against which the Bison or Frederick will play top-seeded Air Academy or No. 17 Palmer Ridge.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
