Denver, CO

DPS foes Denver East, Northfield one win away from facing off for 6A Colorado girls basketball title

Published

2 months ago

March 11, 2026

DPS foes Denver East, Northfield one win away from facing off for 6A Colorado girls basketball title

A simmering Denver Public Schools rivalry is two big wins away from a historic main event.

Denver East and Northfield are playing in opposite sides of the bracket of the Class 6A Final Four on Thursday. If both win, it will set up the first all-DPS championship game in the half-century since girls basketball became a sanctioned CHSAA sport.

There is no love lost between the programs, who have played a handful of physical, tense games over the last two seasons. That includes three showdowns this year and last year, over which the re-established old guard Denver East owns a 5-1 record against upstart, relatively new Northfield.

“It’s been a really competitive rivalry between the top teams in the DPS,” said Denver East head coach Carl Mattei, “and this has been brewing for the last couple of years for bragging rights in the city.”

The Angels have seen a resurgence under Mattei, who is in his fourth season on City Park Esplanade. Denver East is the last DPS girls team to win a hoops title, accomplishing the feat in 2010, and is one of only two DPS programs to do so, along with Montbello in 1997.

Mattei, who built Regis Jesuit into a powerhouse, went to eight title games and won three of them in his 18-year tenure with the Raiders. He was initially talked into applying for the Denver East job by a couple key DPS stakeholders, including Angels boys coach Rudy Carey and ex-longtime district athletic director John Andrew.

‘They don’t need to go play in the suburbs’

Mattei said he took the job because “when I looked at what Denver East could be, I thought it could be the Cherry Creek of DPS (girls basketball).” The Angels were successful under the prior coach, Dwight Berry, who led them to the 2010 title. But Denver East struggled to consistently make deep tournament runs.

“I had to get the kids to believe that they could compete with the Grandviews, the Cherry Creeks, the Regis Jesuits, the Highlands Ranches,” Mattei said. “Players in (the Denver East neighborhood) can actually stay in the city and represent our city, and be part of being the jewel of the city that is the Denver East Angels. They don’t need to go play in (the suburbs).

“That’s what Rudy and (Denver East principal) Terita Walker wanted for this program, and I think that’s where we’re at right now.”

The Angels are headlined by senior forward Mairead Hearty, a San Diego State commit who is averaging 16.9 points a game. Junior guard Grace Hall, a Division I recruit, is averaging 12.3 points. And senior sharpshooter Liana Valdez, a Western Nebraska commit who is a four-year starter like Hearty, can make teams pay from beyond the arc.

East’s Grace Hall (2) controls the ball against Valor Christian’s defense during 6A great 8 basketball game at Denver Coliseum in Denver on Friday, March 6, 2026. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Hearty, who lives a couple blocks from Denver East, is jazzed with the ascension of the program at the school she walks to. The Angels went from a first-round playoff exit in Mattei’s first season, to the Sweet 16 the next, to the Great 8 last year and now the Final Four.

“I’ve been in this neighborhood my whole life, watching games (when I was little), so I’m so excited to be in this situation with this team,” Hearty said. “I couldn’t have dreamed it up any better what we’ve been able to accomplish the last four years.”

While much of Denver East’s roster is homegrown, the Angels’ other X-factor is an import.

Sophomore Mia Avramovic is averaging almost a triple-double with 10.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 9.0 blocks, a swat rate which ranks second in the nation. The 6-foot-6 center moved to Colorado from Serbia, where she’s played on her country’s youth national team, before the school year began.

She’s still extremely raw, but Mattei says Avramovic “has made tremendous strides this season.”

“At home (in Serbia), she just had to be a shot blocker — she wasn’t really allowed to shoot or dribble,” Mattei said. “But she’s developed her game so much that she has offers from Oregon State and Utah. She’s been invited to the Nike Elite Camp in June. She’ll be playing with (a high-level club) this summer. All this after she came in and initially really struggled with her ball skills.”

Driving Avramovic’s development is Mattei’s coaching staff stacked with his former players.

That includes Diani Akigbogun, a two-time Ms. Colorado Basketball for Mattei at Regis Jesuit who is his lead assistant; Celena Miller, who played for Mattei’s club team and then at DU, and is a rising R&B star under the stage name Lady Los; Vanessa Espinoza, who played for Mattei at Douglas County before going on to CSU; and Alisha Godette, who played club for Mattei and later at Arizona State.

BOULDER, CO – MARCH 15: Diani Akigbogun jumps up for the pass for Regis Jesuit in the second half. The Regis Jesuit Raiders take on the Fossil Ridge Sabercats in the Colorado 5A High School State Basketball Championships at the Coors Events Center on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder on March 15, 2014. (Kathryn Scott Osler The Denver Post)

“Forget the state — I’ve got the best staff in the country,” Mattei said. “It’s incredible what I have as coaches and how they are working to develop our talent.”

With those familiar faces behind Mattei on the bench, he’ll take on an old foe in Thursday’s Final Four to set up a possible shot against Northfield in the title.

Mattei and Highlands Ranch boss Caryn Jarocki, the state’s all-time winningest girls coach, developed a rivalry when Mattei was at Regis Jesuit. The Raiders and the Falcons met in the title game three times, with Highlands Ranch winning in 2008 and ’11 and Regis Jesuit triumphing in 2013.

Denver East and Highlands Ranch played earlier this season, a 51-49 win by the Angels on Dec. 9. Both teams had key players injured in that game, including Hearty. Mattei believes his team’s tough out-of-state schedule, which included trips to New York and California, has prepared the Angels for the rematch.

“We have to keep an eye on (Falcons leading scorer) Kimora Banks-Thomas, because she can light it up from anywhere,” Mattei said. “And we can’t get into a run-and-gun game with them. We play two different types of basketball, and when we beat them at their place, we tried to control tempo.”

Northfield a program on the rise

Meanwhile, Northfield faces top-seeded Cherokee Trail. The Nighthawks are trying to get back to the championship after losing in the Class 5A title game to Roosevelt two years ago.

Northfield High School’s Madison Bethel (20) passes the ball across the court during the class 5A Colorado High School girls state championship game at the Denver Coliseum in Denver on Saturday, March 9, 2024. Northfield High School played Roosevelt High School for the state title. (Rebecca Slezak/Special to The Denver Post)

Northfield’s heart and soul is junior guard Madison Bethel, the daughter of head coach Sydney Price. The Nighthawks also feature a trio of transfers who have accelerated their status as a Class 6A force despite the program only being eight years old. Junior forward Delaney Dennis transferred from Denver East prior to last school year, while junior twin guards London Taylor and Paris Taylor transferred from Cherry Creek before this school year. The Taylors were granted immediate eligibility by CHSAA.

London Taylor is the team’s leading scorer with 14.6 points per game, while Bethel, Dennis and Paris Taylor are also averaging double figures. Price declined an interview request for this story, saying she wanted to “remain focused on the game plan during this pivotal and important time.”

Cherokee Trail head coach Tammi Statewright says her Cougars “have to be able to handle the physicality of the DPS way of play” as CT vies to make its first title game.

“I feel like (the Centennial League) is pretty physical, but in a different way,” Statewright said. “We got to be able to handle Northfield’s ball pressure because they’re tough, they’re strong. If we don’t handle that well, we’re not going to make it through.”

Northfield takes on Cherokee Trail on Thursday at 5:45 p.m. at the Denver Coliseum, with Denver East and Highlands Ranch following at 7:15 p.m.

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Denver, CO

Monday's Mets-Rockies game time changed to 3:40 p.m. MT

Published

12 hours ago

May 4, 2026

Press Room

Monday's Mets-Rockies game time changed to 3:40 p.m. MT

DENVER — The Rockies vs. Mets game originally scheduled for Monday, May 4, 2026 at 6:40 p.m. MT/8:40 p.m. ET will be played on Monday, May 4, 2026 at 3:40 p.m. MT/5:40 p.m. ET due to expected inclement weather.
Tickets from the May 4, 2026 game are valid for the

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Denver, CO

Legacy score twice in waning minutes, beat fellow expansion side Denver for first win in franchise history

Published

24 hours ago

May 4, 2026

Press Room

Legacy score twice in waning minutes, beat fellow expansion side Denver for first win in franchise history

Boston Legacy FC

Legacy fans were treated to a thrilling comeback in the team’s first win.

Nichelle Prince and Sammy Smith celebrate a Legacy FC goal in the team’s comeback win over Denver on Sunday. Matthew J Lee/Globe staff

By Emma Healy

May 4, 2026 | 7:24 AM

2 minutes to read

FOXBOROUGH — The Denver Summit began their inaugural season at a sprint, leaving Boston Legacy FC a few steps behind. On Sunday, Boston caught up.

Aïssata Traoré scored just before the start of second-half stoppage time and Bianca St-Georges scored four minutes into it, providing the Legacy their first victory in their inaugural season, 3-2, over Denver in front of an announced 12,524 fans at Gillette Stadium.

The Summit took an early lead before Nichelle Prince tied the game at one just before halftime. Natasha Flint stole the lead back for Denver in the 77th minute, but Traoré — who came on as a substitute in the 71st — found the equalizer in the final minute of regulation and St-Georges scored the winner.

Announced as the NWSL’s 15th club in 2023, the Legacy had a runway nearly two years longer than the Summit, who were officially announced as the 16th in January 2025 and kicked off this year.

The two expansion teams entered Sunday in vastly different positions. The Summit (1-3-3, 6 points) were 12th, four spots ahead of Boston (1-5-1, 4 points) at the bottom of the table.

Both teams made headlines with their home openers. The Legacy’s inaugural game on March 14 drew 30,207 fans to Gillette Stadium, a record for an inaugural home NWSL match until Denver more than doubled that number with 63,004 at Empower Field at Mile High two weeks later.

The Legacy were coming off their most promising performance yet, a 2-2 draw with North Carolina on Wednesday in which they scored two first-half goals before letting their lead slip late.

Boston controlled the pace Saturday for much of the first half, recording five shots on goal to Denver’s one, and were inches away from three early goals — one shot rang off the post, one off the crossbar, and one was blocked by a defender on the goal line.

Despite Boston’s offensive pressure, Denver struck first in the 18th minute. Yazmeen Ryan took on St-Georges one-on-one just outside the 18-yard box and ripped a shot on net. Legacy goalkeeper Casey Murphy got her fingertips on the ball, but punched it just inside the post as the Summit took a 1-0 lead.

Prince evened the score just before halftime, heading home a bouncing ball off of Alba Caño’s corner kick in the 44th minute. The goal was Prince’s first with the Legacy, though she assisted on both of Boston’s tallies on Wednesday — the first player in NWSL history to record two assists in the first 15 minutes of a match.

Denver’s second-half chances were few and far between, but Flint capitalized on a rare opportunity inside the box to beat Murphy and take a 2-1 lead in the 77th minute.

Traoré’s second goal of the season tied the game at 2. The Malian forward collected a pass in the box and fired a volley around Denver’s Eva Gaetino in the final minute of regulation.