MEAD >> Reece Gilpatrick planted herself in the paint, the fulcrum of Broomfield girls basketball’s offensive machine feeding the ball to her teammates outside.

Mead’s girls crashed her on defense, trying to eliminate the height that they lacked as a squad, but the 6-foot-4 Eagles freshman simply kicked it out to her senior teammate, Olivia Kim, who was just as lethal from long range.

The Class 6A third-ranked Eagles’ length and depth from every spot on the floor made them impossible for 5A’s No. 2 Mavericks to take down. Their 65-38 win at Mead on Tuesday night handed them the first-ever Granite Peaks League title, pushing them to 12-0 in the conference. Mead, by contrast, saw perfection shattered as it fell to 11-1.

Mead’s inability to score in the fourth quarter until the last 70 seconds didn’t help its chances.

“It’s definitely rewarding. I feel like our team’s put in so much work over the past summer and just over the past few years, so we’re just continuing to improve,” said Kim, who had never won a league title before. “We watched film. We get a scouting report, and we could just see that they were double-teaming in the post a lot, with all five girls sometimes. Going into the game, it was a lot of in-and-out. That was our kind of game plan, so I get it and if they collapse, kick it back out. If we have a shot, we take it. If not, Reece would push back up.”

Gilpatrick led the Eagles per usual with 25 points, focusing most of her energy in the post. Kim lit up from downtown to complement her with another 20 points, as sophomore Madi Clark (11 points), senior Caroline Kron (nine) and senior Darby Haley (nine) led the scoring initiative for the Mavericks.

Both defenses came out of the gate punishing the other team, and that led to a 29-23 edge for the Eagles at the half. They created their separation from there on out and began the fourth quarter with a 14-0 run. The Mavericks couldn’t recover.

“It was hard helping on backside but also having their shooters too, because I feel like we started to over-help a little bit too much,” Clark said. “Then we started getting fouls called on us, too, which isn’t anyone else’s fault but ours. I just feel like they really did use their size to their advantage in the second half once they figured out that we were double-teaming backside.”

Both squads are looking at high seeds for the state tournaments, which for the 6A and 5A classifications are set to start next week. The loss to one of 6A’s top contenders was just the wake-up call the Mavericks needed.

“We always work hard,” Clark said. “We might be small, but I definitely think that we prove to other teams that just because we don’t have the size, it doesn’t mean that we don’t bring that intensity.”

Broomfield improved to 21-1 and will end its regular season at Fairview on Friday, while Mead, now 19-3, is set to host Holy Family on the same night.