GREENWOOD VILLAGE | Katie Cunningham’s been a part of a lot of wins with the Grandview girls basketball team in the past three-plus seasons — 76 to be exact — and No. 76 was plenty sweet.
Cunningham’s free throw with 8.4 seconds left put the finishing touches on the Wolves’ 52-49 victory Wednesday evening at Cherry Creek in a battle of ranked teams tied for the Centennial League lead.
Freshman Michaela Onyenwere scored a game-high 17 points and Cunningham and fellow senior Natalie Halbleib tallied nine apiece for coach Josh Ulitzky’s Grandview team — ranked No. 4 in the most recent Associated Press Class 5A media poll — which improved to 14-2 overall and finished the first of two rounds of league play at 7-0.
Fifth-ranked Cherry Creek rallied from a six-point deficit to tie the score with under a minute left, but fell to 14-2 and 6-1 in league with the loss.
The teams play again in the regular season finale on Feb. 21 at Grandview.
According to Ulitzky, win broke a tie between Cunningham and 2013 graduate Adaeze Obinnah for most wins as a Grandview varsity player. Obinnah has 75 career wins and another 2013 grad, Natasha Edge, has 73.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. Facebook: Aurora Prep Sentinel
(4) GRANDVIEW 52, (5) CHERRY CREEK 49
Score by quarters:
Grandview 11 13 13 15 — 52
Cherry Creek 15 14 7 13 — 49
GRANDVIEW (52)
Jen Jordan 0 1-2 1, Michaela Onyenwere 6 5-6 17, Natalie Halbleib 3 0-0 9, Katie Cunningham 3 1-5 9, Brittany Bender 2 2-4 6, Cristina Salazer 2 0-0 4, Denise Batiste 1 0-0 3, Kennede Brown 1 1-2 3. Totals 18 10-19 52.
CHERRY CREEK (49)
Kate O’Brien 0 0-1 0, Lauren McMillen 5 0-0 10, Mikaela Eppard 5 6-6 16, Laura Pranger 2 0-1 4, Molly Rohrer 6 1-2 13, Cara McNiff 2 0-0 6, Jillian Bremner 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 7-10 49.
3-point field goals — Grandview (6): Natalie Halbleib 3, Katie Cunningham 2, Denise Batiste; Cherry Creek (2): Cara McNiff 2. Total fouls — Grandview 15, Cherry Creek 17. Fouled out — Cherry Creek: Molly Rohrer. Technical fouls — None.