Longmont 60, Cheyenne Mountain 50; Trojan girls advance to Final Four

By Cheng Sio, For the Ledger

GOLDEN — When the final buzzer rang, the reserves on Longmont`s bench leaped in the air with arms raised to embrace the five players on the court for a celebratory team hug.

The Longmont girls basketball team are going to the Class 4A Final Four.

Megan Carpenter, a 6-foot-5 center, scored 20 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots to lead the fourth-seeded Trojans to a 60-50 win over No. 3 Cheyenne Mountain in a Great 8 matchup Saturday at the Colorado School of Mines.

“That`s awesome, it`s amazing,” senior Jordan Arguello said. “But we can`t stop there, though.”

Longmont`s (23-3) opponent in the Final Four on Wednesday at the Coors Events Center will be Mullen, who beat Mesa Ridge 64-55.

Mullen knocked out Longmont in the Great 8 last year 67-55.

“It`s going to be the toughest game we`ve ever played,” Carpenter said. “They knocked us out last year. It`s our time to knock them out.”

The start time for Wednesday`s rematch has yet to be determined.

What is also undetermined is the status of junior Jamie Katuna, Longmont`s star player. Katuna did not play after injuring her back in Longmont`s 44-41 overtime victory against Centaurus in the Sweet 16.

“I think she`ll be back by Wednesday, but we tried to let her go a little bit (Friday),” Longmont coach Jay Darien said. “I told the kids on Monday that we had to move on without her and that if it were today, Erica Meier would be starting.”

Without Katuna, Longmont didn`t miss a beat.

Leading 26-25 early in the third quarter, Carpenter went to work. She scored eight points in the period capped off by a short turnaround baseline jumper to extend Longmont`s lead to nine.

However, the Indians answered with an 8-0 run over the final three minutes, 13 seconds in the third to trim the Trojans lead 40-39. Before the fourth quarter began, Darien said he told his team to stop fouling.

“The only reason why they stayed in the game as long as they did was because we continued to foul,” he said.

Heeding Darien`s advice, Longmont re-established control with a 12-4 run to begin the fourth. Then, the Trojans iced the game by draining 8-of-12 free throws in the final 3:10 of regulation.

“I was disappointed they went on that run and cut our 9-point lead back to (one),” Darien said. “But once we got rolling again, it was good.”

Arguello and junior Tambre Haddock added 12 points each.

If Longmont plays Mullen minus Katuna, they might go to their two tallest players, Carpenter and Haddock, for points again. Darien said he felt they had the size advantage against the Indians and he expects the same against Mullen.

“We knew we had to go inside,” Darien said. “I got away from that a little bit in the second quarter because the foul count was right and I thought we could get to the free-throw line, but we didn`t really get to the free-throw line. So we went back in at halftime and said we have to pound the ball inside.”