The best, most pressure-filled time of year is here in Colorado high school basketball — the state tournament — has arrived.
For some programs, making the postseason has become old hat, but for others, it is a coveted experience.
A new format instituted by the Colorado High School Activities Association this season expanded the playoff field from 32 to 40 teams, with the top 24 — based on the organization’s seeding index — passed through to the second round and the other 16 set for play-in/first round contests.
That opened up possibilities for teams such as the Aurora Central girls, which hadn’t qualified for the postseason in 15 years. Not only will the Trojans — who are in the first season with Braden Hammond as head coach — get a playoff game, but it will come at home Feb. 26. As the No. 31 seed, Aurora Central will welcome No. 34 Niwot Feb. 26 in the first postseason girls contest at the school since 2010.
“It feels different for me in my third year here,” junior Jamaea Johnson-Gonzales said. “We didn’t make it to the playoffs my freshman and sophomore year, sadly, so it’s exciting that we get to experience things like this. We feel good about it.”
Hammond arrived in Colorado in the past year from Texas, where he was an assistant boys coach, and took over a team that finished 8-15 last season. He gradually overcame the trepidation of returning players, part of which was helped by a winning start.
The Trojans won their first three games of the season, which included a 34-18 win over Regis Groff, which had dealt them a 50-12 defeat the previous season. Aurora Central made it to winter break with a 4-2 record and haven’t had a losing streak longer than two games at any point in the campaign.
“At first, it was pretty rocky, but I think as the season went along, they realized that expectations might be different, but that this guy really cares about us and cares about us improving,” Hammond said. “After we won our first three games, there was less pushback and as the year went on, I’m feeling really good about how they’ve improved.”
The Trojans’ signature moment of the season came on Feb. 13 in a non-league contest against Thomas Jefferson in which they erased an 18-point deficit in the second half. They pulled out a 38-37 victory when they executed Hammond’s late play call and Johnson-Gonzales scored an inside hoop that provided the winning points.
That was part of a three-game winning streak late in the season that ended with a 63-22 loss to 4A powerhouse Skyview in Colorado League tournament championship game to cap a 13-8 regular season. Even playing a schedule that’s two games less than the allowed maximum, that puts them one win shy of the 14-9 mark of the 2010 team that last played host to a playoff game, a loss to Grand Junction.
Aurora Central’s last postseason win came prior to 2003.
The fulcrum of what Aurora Central does is Johnson-Gonzales, a three-year varsity player who has averaged 16.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. She is one of only three Aurora area girls players to average a double-double along with Grandview senior star Sienna Betts (23.8 points, 17.0 rebounds) and Vista PEAK Prep junior Knakai Starks (12.8 points, 10.3 rebounds).
Sophomore Andena Torres is next in the key statistical categories, while sophomore Ana Lua and freshman Anabella Lumba have come on late.
Aurora Central players have worked to change the perception of the program and the school in general when it comes to athletics. They feel like they’ve made inroads.
“We’re showing that Central isn’t the worst school in sports,” Torres said. “We go to other schools and they think they beat us last year, they’re going to beat us again. But us doing what we’re doing now is proving to other schools and everybody else that there are kids, students, teachers and coaches that help the players do better.”
A historic win over a 10-13 and 34th-seeded Niwot team — which has also snapped a postseason drought that has lasted more than a decade — would send the Trojans to a March 1 matchup with No. 2 Mead.
Aurora Central is lone Aurora girls team in the 5A playoffs, while the 6A bracket includes top-seeded Grandview, No. 10 Regis Jesuit, No. 11 Cherokee Trail, No. 25 Eaglecrest, No. 28 Overland, No. 34 Vista PEAK Prep and No. 36 Rangeview. Eaglecrest and Overland have home play-in games Feb. 26, while Rangeview and Vista PEAK Prep go on the road.
Winners of those gamesd along with Grandview, Regis Jesuit and Cherokee Trail play second round games March 1.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
