Behind sisters Makenzie and Tatum Jones, Mullen knocks off Air Academy for Class 5A girls title

For the entire first year of Tonia Jones’ tenure at Mullen, hired in August of 2022 with championship-winning shoes to fill, her Mustangs didn’t shoot a basket in practice.

Seriously, Jones affirmed Saturday night. Not one. They could do that on their own time, she surmised, a former collegiate player at Regis University and Metro State who entered Mullen with a highly intentional vision of the culture she planned to build.

“All we were,” Jones smiled Saturday, “was defensively focused. And so this is where I thought we’d be, at some point.”

“And I love it,” she added.

Where they thought they’d be, and where she hoped to bring them, was this moment in Denver Coliseum Saturday in the Class 5A girls basketball title game, swarming like their lives depended on it against top-seeded Air Academy. No matter, simply, that the Kadets entered undefeated. No matter they sported 6-foot-2 Kansas commit Tatyonna Brown. For 32 minutes of clock, Mullen fastened its bootstraps in a blue-collar defensive effort, climbing to the top of 5A and knocking off Air Academy 56-42 on Saturday.

And they did so, in a special moment for Jones, on the backs of her very own daughters.

Sure, jugging a mom-and-coach role isn’t always smooth. Sure, Mullen senior Tatum Jones sometimes drove her sister Makenzie home from practice rather than ride with their mom, for a temporary reprieve. But a proud Jones gushed postgame that “I love coaching my daughters,” and they made her and her Mullen mentality proud, both doing an exemplary job of keeping high-octane Air Academy grounded.

After Brown came motoring down the lane for the Kadets’ first points early, the 6-foot-2 big running the floor early and often, the Air Academy home crowd roared a gleeful “You-can’t-guard-her!” Except Mullen’s 6-foot-2 Tatum Jones proved more than up to the task, grappling with Brown in the post and provoking brief head-shakes of frustration when the Kansas commit’s teammates couldn’t find her.

Tatum was this program’s foundation, a freshman when Mullen won its last 4A title before jumping for two years to 6A. Mother Tonia followed her to Mullen, a family affair slowly materializing down in Fort Logan. And the baton will rest, after Tatum’s graduation, in the hand of sophomore sister Makenzie, who jittered around passing lanes like a wild banshee on Saturday.

She swatted away an Air Academy 3-point try as seconds ticked away in the first quarter, lanky 5-foot-11 limbs rarely allowing any Kadet an inch of airspace as Mullen took a 12-4 lead. She went skidding into her own bench early in the second quarter to fling a loose ball back into play with her left hand, mother Tonia calling timeout as a Mustangs fan contingent went nuts. And with seconds remaining before halftime, she slid her feet expertly against Air Academy stalwart guard Lydia Flowers, poking her hand into the cookie jar and ripping away her sixth steal — of the half — as the horn sounded.

“What’s so great about having that level of a player on your team is, she brings everyone else up with her,” Jones said of daughter Makenzie.

After a 14-point effort against Mead in the Final Four, junior guard Chloe Pelster gave Mullen another huge lift Saturday, burying a couple of corner 3s in a 12-point first half against Air Academy.

The Kadets cut a double-digit Mullen lead to nine late in the third quarter, after a pair of free throws from Brown. But Makenzie answered back with a soft floater off glass, and Pelster hit a massive top-of-the-key 3 to push Mullen’s lead to 16 entering the fourth.

Makenzie finished with 13 points, six rebounds, seven steals, five blocks and two assists in a stat-stuffing performance fit for a title. Sister Tatum added a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Pelster dropped a game-high 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

“They’ve stepped up this whole season,” Jones said postgame of daughters Makenzie and Tatum, “and now their teammates had a chance to shine, because they just have led so well.”

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