LAKEWOOD — Lakewood seniors Nadia Trevizo-Medina and Aaliyah Sabala would love to play one more game inside the Denver Coliseum.
“Before the game I went into the mindset that this wasn’t going to be my last game of my senior year,” Trevizo-Medina said after she scored a game-high 22 points Tuesday night in Lakewood’s first-round playoff victory against Rock Canyon. “I’m pushing to make it back to the Coliseum again.”
Trevio-Medina and Sabala are some of the last reminisce from the Tigers’ back-to-back trips to the Final 4 of the Class 5A girls basketball state tournament. Lakewood advanced to the state championship game in 2017 and made it back to the semifinals in 2018 at the Denver Coliseum.
Lakewood sophomore Logan Watson (2) works her way around Rock Canyon junior Madeleine LeGrande (33) during the first half Tuesday night at Lakewood High School. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“Nadia and Aaliyah has meant so much and been through so much with state championship games and Final 4s,” Lakewood coach Chris Poisson said. “This year we are giving them everything we can and see what happens.”
It was a little dicey early in the opening round of the state tournament Tuesday night for the No. 18-seeded Tigers (13-11 record) hosting No. 47 Rock Canyon. The Jaguars actually jumped out to a 14-10 lead after the first quarter.
Lakewood made just three field goal in the opening quarter.
“We were stuck on 10 points for a long time,” Poisson said of the Tigers’ poor shooting early on. “We were taking good shots that were open. They just weren’t falling.”
Shots started hitting the bottom of the net in the second quarter. Sophomore Logan Watson poured in all of her eight points in the key second quarter for the Tigers. Lakewood outscored Rock Canyon 21-7 in the second quarter.
“I knew I had to shoot them if I was open,” Watson said of her offensive output in that helped Lakewood push out to a double-digit lead at halftime. “Those felt good.”
Rock Canyon senior Halle Hamilton (10) drives on Lakewood sophomore Amanda Archuletta (3) during the second half Tuesday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Sophomores Amanda Archuletta and Haven Kutch hit a 3-pointer each before halftime. Junior Mariah Ramos had a pair of buckets during the Tigers’ 18-2 run.
“I was a bit nervous just because our energy seemed a bit off,” Watson said of the rough start. “We weren’t shooting well at all. We just never quit.”
Trevizo-Medina took over in the second half. She drained a trio of 3-pointers and even had a 3-point play in old-school fashion with a drive to the basket and getting fouled. She had a dozen point in the third quarter.
Lakewood finished the game with a dozen 3-pointers made by six different players. Trevizo-Medina led the way with four 3-pointers.
“We had to work around our strengths,” Trevizo-Medina said. “That’s shooting the ball and feeding the ball into the bigs we do have.”
While the Tigers’ offense got going, the defense locked down Rock Canyon in the second half. The Jaguars (9-15) was held to 21 points in the second half.
“We are playing our best right now,” Poisson said. “It just took us a long time for us to find the combination of executing and making shots.”
The Tigers had a quick first-round exit last year with a road loss to Liberty. The young squad got back above .500 during the regular season this year and finished third in the 5A Jeffco League behind No. 1-seeded Valor Christian and No. 7 Ralston Valley.
With Poisson playing six sophomores on varsity this season, he talked about how important it is to get some postseason experience for the future. The Tigers will get a big playoff road test against No. 15 Cherokee Trail on Friday night in the second round.
Lakewood senior Nadia Trevizo-Medina (23) scored a game-high 22 points in the Tigers’ 70-42 win over Rock Canyon on Tuesday night. The Tigers hit the road for the second round of the 5A state tournament. Lakewood faces No. 15 Cherokee Trail on Friday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)