5A basketball quarterfinals: Windsor boys advance to Thursday’s semifinals ...Saudi Arabia

DENVER — Windsor coach Jon Rakiecki and his battle-tested Wizards boys program knew exactly what they were up against Saturday at the Denver Coliseum.

The opposing players? Windsor’s squad grew up playing with them.

The venue? The Wizards have practically made it their second home in recent years.

The pressure? It was certainly nothing the defending Class 5A champion couldn’t handle.

The result? Eleventh-seeded Windsor walked away with a gritty 63-51 win against third-seeded Severance in the state tournament quarterfinals.

“I’m very proud of them,” Rakiecki said. “They executed our game plan very well. They didn’t get too emotional; kind of kept level-headed throughout the game when (the Silver Knights) made runs. … Teams that win in March don’t get emotional, and they execute. That’s what we did.”

The defending champion Wizards (19-7) will now carry that even-keeled approach — and a six-game win streak at just the right time — into a semifinals matchup at a to-be-announced time Thursday against the winner of a late-Saturday game between No. 2 Grand Junction (21-4) and No. 10 Lutheran (17-8).

Severance — which belongs to the same school district as Windsor and sits just five miles away — ended its best season in the school’s seven-year history with a record of 22-4.

Though the Silver Knights managed to keep with striking distance all game, the Wizards never really allowed Severance to strike.

Windsor stayed just a step ahead of its rival all game.

And, finally, when the Wizards had the chance to put an exclamation point on the hard-fought win, their lead, senior guard Madden Smiley, did precisely that — twice.

With 1 minute, 39 seconds left, Smiley skied for a big two-handed fastbreak dunk to put his team up 58-51. A mere 20 seconds later, he slammed the ball again, this time on a drive down the lane in the halfcourt to extend the lead to 60-51.

“The first dunk was such a good feeling,” said Smiley, who scored a game-high 19 points to go with nine rebounds and two critical steals. “The second one, I saw the spin and I knew the (defender) wasn’t behind him, and I knew I lost him. … I figured I might as well go for the jam.”

Windsor is now in the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season.

For more about the Wizards’ run to the state semifinals, read greeleytribune.com in the coming days and check out Wednesday’s Tribune.

Windsor girls fall in heartbreaker

The fourth-seeded Windsor’s girls basketball team experienced the ultimate heartbreak in the final seconds of a frenetic finish during its 68-66 loss to fifth-seeded Standley Lake in the 5A quarterfinals Saturday.

In the final moments of the dramatic back-and-forth slugfest, the Wizards had the ball with the game tied at 66 but was inbounding the ball under the Gators’ hoop with just more than 7.4 seconds left.

Gators standout freshman Jojo Martin swarmed Windsor’s ball-handlers on the inbound pass, came up with a steal and sank a floater from a crowded paint area to give Standley Lake the win as time expired.

While the Wizards ended their season with a 20-6 record, the Gators (22-4) advanced to a semifinals matchup Thursday against the winner of a late Saturday game between top-seeded Lutheran (22-3) and No. 9 Pueblo East (22-1).

For most of the 32 minutes of their quarterfinals matchup, neither Windsor nor Standley Lake appeared too willing to go home a week before the state title will be decided.

After trailing 54-46, the Wizards opened the final quarter on a 10-0 run. They took a 56-54 on a steal and breakaway layup by senior shooting guard Gabby Gates with 5 minutes left in the game.

Gates struck again moments later, driving baseline and scoring with just 3:36 left left to give the Wizards a 61-56 advantage. That was Windsor’s biggest lead of the game.

Standley Lake’s swarming pressure defense gave the Wizards fits all game, as Windsor struggled at times to initial offense.

After a Windsor turnover, Martin sank a layup and drew a foul to allow the Gators to tie the game at 61 with 2:48 left.

Of course, that wouldn’t be the final big basket Martin would convert down the stretch.

Freshman Chloe Miller’s putback off her own initial miss gave Standley Lake a 63-61 lead with 1:34 remaining.

Windsor standout junior guard Nora Greenwald’sc elbow 3 tied the game at 66 with 22 seconds left.

But, as they had all game, turnovers plagued the Wizards in the final moments.

Windsor finished with 19 giveaways, none more detrimental than the final one in the waning seconds.

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