Keeler: Sienna Betts staked claim as Colorado’s greatest girls basketball player in Grandview’s state title win

Best girls basketball player in Colorado history? Betts your sweet bippy it’s Sienna.

“We were having this discussion (Friday) night,” former Niwot coach Terri Ward told me with a chuckle after watching Sienna Betts and Grandview crush Legend, 61-39, in the CHSAA 6A girls championship game. “So, it’s funny that this is coming up right now.”

It’s come up because Betts, the Wolves’ 6-foot-4 power forward, put a bow on a stellar prep career Saturday by putting a hurt on the Titans: 21 points, 16 rebounds, three steals. Sienna led Grandview in shots (10), makes (seven), defensive rebounds (13) and blocks (one).

But she was proudest of posting a team-high five assists. Proud … and a little disappointed.

“Five assists?” Betts asked me. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” I said.

See, Betts helps to move the ball up the floor, a center type who directs traffic, and teammates, like a point guard — soaking up double-teams and feeding open shooters. She’s one part quarterback, two parts sledgehammer. Come to think of it, when the Wolves are humming, Sienna looks an awful lot like their version of Nikola Jokic.

“That’s what I want to emulate for the girls’ side. I would love to be considered the girls’ version (of Jokic),” she gushed. “Passing? I just think it’s fun. I don’t think it’s fun to score all this time. I think the best thing to do out there, the best feeling, is getting someone an open shot and getting someone a good pass. That feels even more special.”

While we’re on the subject of special, no, Betts doesn’t shoot like Abby Waner. She doesn’t handle the rock like Tanya Haave or glide like Ann Strother.

But no Colorado prep player, boy or girl, has ever grabbed more rebounds than Grandview’s No. 51. And no girl hoopster has won more state Gatorade Player of the Year awards than Betts’ three. She’s a three-time state champ, a finalist for national Gatorade Player of the Year honors and bound for Big Ten tourney champ UCLA (30-2) in the summer. Only two Colorado basketball players have ever been named Gatorade girls state player of the year thrice: Sienna Betts (’23, ’24, ’25) and former Grandview star Michaela Onyenwere (’15, ’16, ’17).

“I would probably definitely rank (Betts) in the top five (all-time),” Ward told me. “I would say I would put her in the top five as far as where she is as a high school player right now.”

Ward won more than 300 games with the Cougars. She’s seen more girls hoops than I’ll forget. She won’t forget Betts. Not on your life.

“She’s probably better currently as a high school player,” the ex-coach continued, “than her sister was at that age.”

Ward said her top five would probably lead with Haave of Evergreen at the top, followed by Strother of Highlands Ranch and Waner of ThunderRidge, then pick your Betts. She’ll take Sienna first, over Lauren, the UCLA star who’s coming back to college next fall to play with her sister.

“(Sienna) matured a lot over that time, been better at being a leader, involving her teammates,” Grandview coach Josh Ulitzky said after the game. “And just seeing her grow, that’s been probably the most rewarding and fun part, just the conversations that we got to have and how she gets it.”

Coaches love when their best players are also their hardest workers. If Lauren set the bar at Grandview, Sienna raised it.

“Top-five player in Colorado history?” I asked.

“That’s really special,” the younger Betts replied. “I think I definitely deserve that. In my opinion, I definitely deserve that. I don’t want to sound cocky, but that just sounds right. For sure.”

Man, we’ll miss that. The middle Betts is the outspoken one in Colorado’s first family of prep hoops, the frankest, funniest and most fearless of the bunch. Even her Instagram bio is a short window into a free spirit and an unrivaled soul: sienna betts/Food Critic/@uclawb

In Manning-brother terms, she’s the Cooper of the club. As Beatles go, if sister Lauren is Paul or George, Sienna is John, quickest with a quip.

“What’s the word called?” she asked me, then snatched it out of the air like so many stray rebounds. “Unapologetic. Yeah. Unapologetically just being me.”

And she can play, y’all. At 6-4, Sienna doesn’t have the length of big sister Lauren, who’s 6-7; or the upside of little brother Dylan, who’s already turning heads as a 7-2 freshman at Cherry Creek.

But the all-around game is better. The fundamentals, relative to where Lauren was four years ago, are sounder.

“I want people to remember the impact I had on my teammates out there, and I feel like I was able to make them feel special,” Betts said. “They’re all so amazing, but I just feel like I made them even better. I think it really showed (on Saturday) as well.”

Sienna was too much for the Titans, who tried to make up the difference in height and Coliseum experience with sheer grit. Legend rolled up with pink shoes and pink highlights in their ponytails, underdogs with nothing to lose. But when the Titans saw two 3-pointers over the first six minutes rim in and then out, it was clear that one more Cinderella moment wasn’t in the cards.

Grandview raced out to a 9-0 lead three minutes in and held a 16-7 cushion after a quarter, putting the Titans and their glass slippers on the back foot almost immediately.

“The three state championships, the three Gatorade Players of the Year, McDonald’s All-American, all-time leading rebounder in the state, period, end of story,” Ulitzky said. “All of those things. I think, help make her argument to be with the elite group of women.”