{"id":35038,"date":"2023-03-27T12:10:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T18:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creeks-lexi-gray-rylee-hickman-drive-all-state-victory\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:22:16","slug":"dove-creeks-lexi-gray-rylee-hickman-drive-all-state-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creeks-lexi-gray-rylee-hickman-drive-all-state-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek\u2019s Lexi Gray, Rylee Hickman drive all-state victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek's Lexi Gray (10) and Rylee Hickman (20) chat while awaiting introduction and recognition Sunday, March 19, in Aurora as 2023 Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Basketball Games players in Grandview High School Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Pulling a rebound away from Springfield\u2019s Brakelle Westphal and two other 1A Red players, not long after Blue teammate Peyton Nicklas buried a go-ahead 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, Dove Creek\u2019s Lexi Gray set in motion a sequence of predictable fouls, putting Blue at the free-throw line in hopes of saving precious seconds Sunday morning, March 19.<\/p>\n

Problem was, Red had several fouls to give before putting Blue into the one-and-one bonus, and Blue made sure it took their opponents in the 2023 Colorado Coaches of Girls\u2019 Sports All-State Basketball Games\u2019 Class 1A feature as long as possible before taking any sort of hack, push, trip, chicken-wing, etc.<\/p>\n

Gray, with 15.8 ticks left in regulation, would be the recipient of one such infraction, and Dove Creek\u2019s Rylee Hickman then took contact with intent exactly three seconds later. Finally, after dribbling between Westphal and Kiowa\u2019s Kendra Byrd in the backcourt and receiving a two-handed shove in the back from the latter, Hickman was awarded the opportunity to attempt two potentially-clinching FTs with 0:04.6 remaining.<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek's Rylee Hickman flies past, from left, Westminster Belleview Christian's Bethany Long, Kit Carson's Tess Johnson and Granada's Trinidie Quintana on a take to the hoop at Grandview High School in Aurora. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek's Lexi Gray (10) prepares for a tough shot attempt against Westminster Belleview Christian's Bethany Long during the recent 2023 Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Basketball Games' Class 1A feature Sunday morning, March 19, in Aurora at Grandview High School. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek's Lexi Gray (10) battles Kit Carson's Tess Johnson for a rebound during the recent 2023 Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Basketball Games' Class 1A feature Sunday morning, March 19, in Aurora at Grandview High School. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek's Lexi Gray (10) battles Kit Carson's Tess Johnson for a rebound during the recent 2023 Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Basketball Games' Class 1A feature Sunday morning, March 19, in Aurora at Grandview High School. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek's Rylee Hickman (20) accepts congratulations from 2023 Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Basketball Games, Class 1A-Blue boss Colin Nicklas (Briggsdale), acknowledging her two game-clinching free throws with fewer than five seconds remaining against Red in a 53-49 win Sunday morning, March 19, in Aurora at Grandview H.S. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek's Lexi Gray (10) and Wiley's Fatima Gomez (11) left Aurora and the 2023 Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Basketball Games Sunday morning, March 19, smiling after helping the Class 1A-Blue team defeat Red 53-49 at Grandview H.S. Gray scored eight points. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Smiling broadly as she stepped to the stripe, she coolly cashed both tries to ice a come-from-behind, 53-49 victory \u2013 Red had led 44-37 beginning the final frame, and still led 49-48 with just 1:09 to go \u2013 at Grandview High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome, especially because that was \u2013 definitely \u2013 the last time I\u2019ll ever shoot free throws!\u201d a still-grinning Hickman said after exiting the gymnasium. \u201cAll season I didn\u2019t really run (point), which was totally fine with me, but we didn\u2019t have a \u2018true\u2019 point guard on our little all-star team. So they were like \u2018You\u2019re running it!\u2019 I was like, \u2018OK!\u2019 A few times I forgot stuff \u2026 but it was still awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing for state champion Briggsdale\u2019s coaching staff of Colin Nicklas, Cody Brunelle and Nikki White at the Games, Hickman and Gray each scored eight points \u2013 trailing only the nine registered by both La Veta\u2019s Kendyl Eddleman and Idalia\u2019s Jenna Wieser. And after Blue fell behind 13-8 after one quarter of play, Wieser converted an \u2018and-one\u2019 3-point play with 0:15.5 left in the second, tying the score at 29-29 entering halftime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe switched to a man-to-man defense to get them off the three(s),\u201d Gray said, \u201cand it really helped with getting steals and getting down the court to our end \u2026 and scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do have some good 3-point shooters; they were shooting 5 feet off of that line!\u201d said Hickman.<\/p>\n

Genoa-Hugo\u2019s Baylee Kelly contributed seven points, while Nicklas and BHS teammate Macie Klem each totaled six for the triumphant side. Granada\u2019s Kiana Herrera made two of Red\u2019s eight treys and totaled a game-high 12 points in defeat. GHS teammate Trinidie Quintana sank one in totaling nine points, while Byrd equaled Eddleman\u2019s game-high three triples for her nine.<\/p>\n

Coached by KHS\u2019 staff of Rick Carothers, Julea Carothers and Bailea Carothers, plus 4A Greeley University assistant Ashlea Carothers, Red went 5-of-7 from the foul line; Blue ended up a perfect 4-of-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t think I\u2019d actually be here,\u201d Hickman said. \u201cBeing here\u2019s truly amazing; I definitely encourage other girls to push to get here. I can\u2019t thank everyone enough for their help, and the heart that my team had in getting me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really glad that she got to come too; it was a lot of fun to play with her one more time, get to have this experience with her,\u201d said Gray. \u201cIt was difficult to get to know, like, other players on my team, but it was super-fun. Means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs shine as game goes down to final seconds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,39,28,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82841,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038\/revisions\/82841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35038"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}