AURORA | A capsule preview of the 2026 Class 6A girls basketball state tournament Final Four contest between Northfield and Cherokee Trail scheduled for March 12, 2026, at the Denver Coliseum:
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2026 CLASS 6A FINAL FOUR GIRLS BASKETBALL STATE PLAYOFF GAME
No. 5 Northfield (23-3) vs. No. 1 Cherokee Trail (23-3)
March 12, 5:45 p.m. at Denver Coliseum
BREAKDOWN: Cherokee Trail and Northfield meet in the postseason for the first time and both go into it in search of the program’s first all-time state championship. The Nighthawks have come the closest, as they made the 2024 5A state championship game before losing to Roosevelt, while the Cougars’ made the semifinals in 2024 and lost to Valor Christian. …Though they haven’t played in the postseason, Cherokee Trail and Northfield have played once previously, with the Cougars taking a 65-44 pre-holiday break tournament victory in the 2021-22 season.
NORTHFIELD: Coach Sydney Price’s Nighthawks have a six-game winning streak working, which includes a victory in the City League Gold Division championship game (a two-point win over No. 6 Denver East, another 6A semifinalist) followed by postseason wins over No. 28 Smoky Hill (91-83) in the second round, No. 12 Pine Creek (47-41) in the Sweet 16 and 66-59 defeat of No. 13 Riverdale Ridge in the Great 8. In three postseason contests, junior London Taylor has averaged 18.7 points per game, which includes a high of 24 against Smoky Hill, while junior Madison Bethel has a pair of 21-point efforts and averaged 15.3 points and Delaney Davis has added 11.3 points per contest, while juniors Faith Nelson and Paris Taylor also have a double-digit scoring games. …For the season, four Nighthawks have averaged double-digit points, led by London Taylor (14.6 ppg along with a team-best 4.6 steals per game), while Dennis has accounted for 13.9 per contest (helped by 45 made 3-pointers, plus a team-high 5.5 rebounds per game), Bethel 10.6 (to go with a team-high average of 3.7 assists per game) and Paris Taylor 10.5.
CHEROKEE TRAIL: Coach Tammi Statewright’s Cougars finished as the runner-up in the Centennial League after a loss to second-seeded Arapahoe in the Centennial League Challenge finale and followed that with a second-round win over No. 32 Boulder (61-16), a Sweet 16 victory over No. 17 Eaglecrest (60-52, see story, here) and a 66-39 Great 8 win over No. 9 Legend (see story, here). In three postseason contests, senior Aaliyah Broadus has averaged a healthy 24.7 points per game (topped by a 29-point contest against Legend), while she passed the 1,000-point career mark in a 20-point outing against Eaglecrest and also tallied 25 against Boulder. Freshman Chloe Cain has been a prime time performer in her first postseason, as she has averaged 13 points per game (topped by 22 points in the Sweet 16), while senior Karson Chaney scored 13 in the Great 8 win and has averaged 6.3 per contest in the postseason. …For the season, Broadus (a Wichita State signee), leads Cherokee Trail in both scoring (17.0 ppg, a career-high in four varsity seasons) and rebounding (7.4 rpg), while Cain — who missed a significant chunk of time due to a fractured wrist — is second in both categories with a scoring average of 14.5 points per game to go with 6.0 rebounds and she paces the squad in assists with 4.0 per contest and steals at 2.7 per game. Chaney is the Cougars’ third double-digit scorer with average of 11.2 points per game that is helped by a team-best 53 made 3-pointers. Sophomore Malia Gutierrez (7.5 ppg, 2.9 apg) and senior Hannah Hazim (6.9 ppg) add scoring support and contribute in multiple ways.
WINNER GETS: The Northfield-Cherokee Trail winner will advance to the 2:15 p.m. March 14 6A state championship game at the Denver Coliseum against the winner of the other semifinal between No. 6 Denver East and No. 7 Highlands Ranch.
