VISTA

but I’m very proud to have gotten to coach these guys.

“ is is an extra special group, 10 seniors. ey really love each other. I told them to hold their heads high. ey have nothing to be but proud. is is a great group of guys.” Vista was good. Five Golden Eagles also had double-digit scoring nights: Caden Stevens (16 points), Cal Baskind and Brendan Diel (12 apiece), and Zach Bowen and Radek Homer (11 each).

East was just better. Austin Mohr, whom Wood described as “one of the 10 best” players in Colorado, recorded a double-double (15 points, 12 rebounds). Gil Gonzalez scored a game-high 20 points on 73% shooting (8-for-11). D’Aundre Samuels, lauded by Wood as “probably the best player in the state,” had 16 points and looked unstoppable at times. And don’t forget about Jack Greenwood and Sam Scott, who

Arapahoe senior Sydney White was fouled shooting a three-pointer with 2.8 seconds on the clock. She sank the rst two free throws to pull within two points and the Warriors had to decide whether to intensionally miss the third free throw and try for a rebound.

Smith made the third free throw as Arapahoe closed to within a point and then Monarch’s Hayley Luther was fouled on the inbounds pass and she made both free throws to account for the three-point margin.

“We discussed that (missing the last free throw) in our timeout,” said Warriors’ coach Jerry Knafelc. “We tried to deny the ball inbounds and we were close to getting a ve-second call and then we would of got the ball back but we didn’t.”

Gianna Smith was the top scorer for Arapahoe with 19 points. White had 16 points and Emerson Stark 10 but the Warriors were outrebonded, 43-25, and Knafelc noted that was the di erence in the game.

Mountain Vista (24-3) couldn’t nd a way to slow down Denver East in the second half.

“ ey are the type of team you have to give up something,” said Vista coach Brian Wood. “We were giving threes to some of their guys we would have not rather had scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Moral of the story: From top to bottom, the players on East’s roster could do damage on the scoreboard. When Samuels got in foul trouble midway through the third quarter, longtime East coach Rudy Carey simply plugged in another player and the scoring continued.

In all, East attempted 22 more shots than the Golden Eagles, who were making their fourth Final Four appearance in program history.

“ eir shot-making ability is just incredible,” Stevens said. “It’s really hard to defend a team when all their players, one through eight, can make shots. It’s tough. at’s what makes them so good.”

What also made the Angels so good was their desire for the ball. East outrebounded Vista 41-29, which included a 20-11 advantage in o ensive boards. ose o ensive retrievals led to 20 second-chance points for the Angels.

“What surprised me the most was how badly they hurt us on the o ensive glass,” Wood said. “ at was the shooting but they just kept making them. And it seemed like when they missed them, they went and got the ball.

“It’s hard to win when you give up 86 points. I’m really proud of this team and it is just hard when it ends so abruptly.” di erence in the game.” ings got a little interesting midway through the fourth quarter when Vista scored seven consecutive points — a Stevens two-pointer from the low post, a Bowen pull-up jumper and a Baskind corner three — over a span of 55 seconds to narrow East’s lead to seven. e two teams essentially played to a draw in the second period.

But the Angels outscored the Golden Eagles 23-11 the rest of the way to prevent any kind of late-game drama.

After Vista (24-3) scored the game’s rst ve points, East (25-2) rode an 18-2 run — the longest run by either team — to an 18-14 lead at the end of the rst quarter.

A driving shot by Homer early on in the third quarter, after he ripped down a rebound on the other end, gave the Golden Eagles what proved to be their last lead (39-38) of the night — and their season.

“We just struggled to get shots (to fall) on o ense (in the second half),” said Stevens, whose Golden Eagles shot 38% in the third and fourth quarters compared to the Angels’ 55% mark. Worse yet, East was 75% (6-for-8) from three-point range in the second half compared to Vista’s 20% (2-for-10) clip. “ e rst time we played them (an 81-72 East win on Jan. 17), whenever we got shots on o ense, we made most of them.”

• Denver East nished with ve players scoring in double gures.

• Caden Stevens had 17 points for Vista to which also had ve players in double gures. Brendan Diehl and Celeb Baskind each had 12 points while Radek Homer and Zach Brown contributed 11 points.

Stevens will now turn his attention to the college game — MSU Denver has already o ered him a scholarship and he’s receiving interest from several other Division I and II schools as well — but said he’ll never forget the season recorded in 2022-23 by a group of teenagers at the school o East Wildcat Reserve Parkway in Highlands Ranch.

And, of course, he’ll never forget his teammates, especially his fellow seniors: Bowen, Diehl, Homer, Cade Artzer, Bryan Cozad, Luke Fenn, Jake Nelson, Dominic Perkins and Ian Strawbridge.

“I love all of them,” Stevens said. “ is year was so fun. at was the best season I’ve ever had in my life, just because of them — great teammates, a great coach [Wood] right here. It was a great season.”

About Letters To The Editor

Colorado Community Media welcomes letters to the editor. Please note the following rules:

• Email your letter to letters@coloradocommunitymedia.com. Do not send via postal mail. Put the words “letter to the editor” in the email subject line.

• Submit your letter by 5 p.m. on Wednesday in order to have it considered for publication in the following week’s newspaper.

• Letters must be no longer than 400 words.

• Letters should be exclusively submitted to Colorado Community Media and should not submitted to other outlets or previously posted on websites or social media. Submitted letters become the property of CCM and should not be republished elsewhere.

• Letters advocating for a political candidate should focus on that candidate’s qualifications for o ce. We cannot publish letters that contain unverified negative information about a candidate’s opponent. Letters advocating for or against a political candidate or ballot issue will not be published within 12 days of an election.

• Publication of any given letter is at our discretion. Letters are published as space is available.

• We will edit letters for clarity, grammar, punctuation and length and write headlines (titles) for letters at our discretion.

• Please don’t send us more than one letter per month. First priority for publication will be given to writers who have not submitted letters to us recently.

• Submit your letter in a Word document or in the body of an email. No PDFs or Google Docs, please.

• Include your full name, address and phone number. We will publish only your name and city or town of residence, but all of the information requested is needed for us to verify you are who you say you are.

• Letters will be considered only from people living in Colorado Community Media’s circulation area in Adams, Arapahoe, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Je erson and Weld counties.

• Do not use all caps, italics or bold text.

• Keep it polite: No name calling or “mudslinging.”

Turn To The Colorado Sun For News Across The State

The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state — our community — can better understand itself.

In this way, The Sun contributes to a more vibrant, informed and whole Colorado.

The Sun, launched in 2018, is committed to fact-based, in-depth and nonpartisan journalism. It covers everything from politics and culture to the outdoor industry and education.

Now, The Colorado Sun co-owns this and other Colorado Community Media newspapers as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. The Sun is CCM’s partner for statewide news.

For Colorado Sun stories, opinions and more, and to support The Sun’s misssion as a member or subscriber, visit coloradosun.com.