Cole Scherer lives for these moments.

On back-to-back days, against a pair of teams that he had lost to in the regular season and with bigger names on the court, the Valor Christian junior was the biggest star of all.

After scoring 29 points in the Eagles’ win over Smoky Hill in the Final 4 on Friday night, Scherer followed that up with 28 points on Saturday as Valor took down ThunderRidge and 4-star CU Buffs signee Andrew Crawford by a final of 52-40 for the 6A boys state championship.

“I just like the big moment,” Scherer said.

With every 3-pointer he perfectly laced through the nets at the Denver Coliseum the last two days, he made sure everyone now knows who he is.

“I think he’s had by far the greatest season of anyone in the state of Colorado from start to finish,” Valor coach Jeff Platt said.

Scherer and his 21 points per game were undoubtedly a big reason why the Eagles were able to rattle off 17 straight wins on the way to the program’s second title — first at the 6A level. But the Eagles needed everyone on Saturday against a ThunderRidge juggernaut that has star power that goes beyond Crawford.

“This was a total team effort,” Platt said. “We’ve had a lot of other guys step up and feed off that energy from Cole. Our seniors played like seniors the entire state tournament. Our entire cast has contributed night in and night out.”

Ryan Mandes is the epitome of that. The junior guard didn’t score in his team’s title game victory, but he was tasked with guarding Crawford all night long and helped limit the future Buff to zero points in the second half. ThunderRidge as a team was 0-for-13 from the field in the fourth quarter as Valor pulled away.

“They didn’t (make a shot)? Jeez,” Scherer’s said. “That’s my boy Ryan Mandes, he locked up Andrew Crawford.”

The win gives Valor a sweep of the 6A state titles as the girls team took down Regis Jesuit earlier in the day.

Jessika Caldwell’s Valor Christian dynasty continues with 4th girls CHSAA state title in last decade

“Could it be any better than both our programs having a chance to experience this in the same year?” Platt said. “That’s just an example of how this is so much bigger than our basketball team. This is about our entire school.”

The win also completes a strong first season at Valor for Platt, who is the son of longtime college assistant coach Jim Platt. Jeff was recently the head coach at IMG Academy and has been an assistant at the college level as well.

“He just built a culture of trust here,” Scherer said.

It may have taken most of the season, but by the end the Eagles were exactly the team he wanted them to be.

“We’ve wanted to develop a warrior mentality and play with that level of grit and toughness,” Platt said. “We’ve had to build that throughout the season. It wasn’t who we were day one, but we got tougher and stronger as the season went on and just continued to learn how to respond to every situation that we face.”

Scherer, specifically, responded to being on the big stage by delivering the biggest performances of his career. He’s only got one college offer right now — from MSU Denver — but he might’ve just changed that.

“He’ll get some after this!” his buddy Mandes shouted in the tunnels of the Coliseum.

Full championship game results

6A boys: No. 6 Valor Christian 52, No. 4 ThunderRidge 40

6A girls: No. 4 Valor Christian 58, No. 7 Regis Jesuit 44

5A boys: No. 4 Mesa Ridge 57, No. 3 Windsor 53

5A girls: No. 2 Roosevelt 69, No. 4 Northfield 63

4A boys: No. 2 Resurrection Christian 76, No. 1 Kent Denver 61

4A girls: No. 3 Riverdale Ridge 50, No. 1 Holy Family 43