DENVER – Joel Babbit couldn’t help but crack a smile at the thought of Mesa Ridge’s defense.

The Grizzlies lost 62-55 to Silver Creek in the Great 8 and missed their shot at a fourth consecutive Final Four. But the Grizzlies coach wasn’t disappointed in the result of Saturday’s game at the Denver Coliseum. Not when, as Babbitt put it, “You’ve been as fortunate as we have over the years.”

“Our defense propels us to this,” Babbitt said. “Four years in a row we’ve been lucky enough to come here and that’s because of the work we do on defense. This crew bought into defense and got us here especially with our inability to shoot from the outside. Our defense was incredible this year.”

After winning back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024, the Grizzlies (19-7) advanced to the Final Four in 2025 and battled for another trip to the semifinals this season. But in their way was Silver Creek (22-4), which ran an efficient 2-3 zone that forced the Grizzlies to test their deep shooting abilities.

For much of the contest, the No. 12-seeded Grizzlies managed to solve the zone of the No. 13-seeded Raptors. Mesa Ridge built a 27-22 halftime lead and J’Marius Jones had nine of the Grizzlies’ 27 points.

“The moment came and I played as well as I could,” Jones said. “I tried to help my team win and, sadly, this time it didn’t work. We worked our butts off out there. We fought for all four quarters. It would be different if we went out there and gave them some quarters, but we tried our hardest and I’m proud of us.”

The Raptors bolted to an 8-0 run to start the third and had a 30-27 lead in the first minute of the period and led 40-38 at the end of the frame.

After Brian Lamar scored on a putback to give Mesa Ridge a 43-42 lead in the fourth, Connor Bonsett nailed a 3-pointer to put the Raptors ahead 45-43 with 5:16 left in the game. The Raptors never relinquished that lead and their zone served its purpose. The Grizzlies shot 7 of 21 from deep for the game and 4 of 12 at the free-throw line.

“We’re going to work on shooting this offseason,” Babbitt said. “We had to work so hard to get a basket because we had to get three or four feet within the rim and I have to do a better job as a coach of teaching shooting. We don’t spend a lot of time during the season shooting, we spend a lot of time working on defense. So I have to invest more time in shooting.”

The Grizzlies started their full-court press late in the fourth and forced a turnover that Jones, who finished with a game-high 19, turned into a layup to cut the deficit to 54-52. But an 8-3 run in the final 38 seconds put the win out of reach for the Grizzlies.

“We don’t stop working, we’re always working,” Jones said. “All 12 months we worked our butts off to make sure we could perform. We have a couple of juniors this year: Dustin (Haley), Tavion Cross, James Matlock — they’re going to be ready next year and get us back here, for sure.”