No. 7 Doherty girls basketball returns to the Denver Coliseum after beating No. 10 Fruita Monument

COLORADO SPRINGS – The thought of being a game away from playing in the Denver Coliseum made the Doherty girls basketball team nervous about playing in the Denver Coliseum.

Year after year the Spartans have come up a game or two short of advancing to the Class 5A Great 8 and that thought hung with them as they took the floor against Fruita Monument. There were some offensive struggles early, but the defense clamped down in the second and third quarters which allowed the nerves to settle, and the No. 7 Spartans got a 42-25 win and will indeed play at the Coliseum on Friday.

“They didn’t want to lose so bad that you saw it in the first half, they’re so anxious about because it happened to them last year and it happened to them the year before where they felt like they could win and it slipped away,” coach Stephanie Leasure said. “This whole week was getting them out of their own head that we’re not letting what happened the last two years happen again.”

Leasure was quick to point out that Payton Sterk, a four-year varsity starter, has never played in the Coliseum and finally gets to make the trip there. And she gets to go because the Spartans (22-3 overall) were able to handle the pressure defense that the Wildcats (21-4) threw at them. And then they countered with some lockdown defense of their own.

Doherty allowed Fruita to score eight combined points between the second and third quarters. Coming out of the break at halftime, with the Spartans up just 18-14, Gabby Beauperthuy scored two quick baskets forcing a Fruita timeout. But those buckets were enough to swing momentum Doherty’s way for good.

“It determined the rest of the quarter for us,” Beauperthuy said. “It showed everyone that we really wanted it.”

Beauperthuy led all scorers with 16 points, the bulk of which came from right underneath the basket. Sterk added seven despite struggling to shoot the ball early, something the Spartans know can’t happen in the Denver Coliseum.

“We have to get in there and get shots up before the game,” Sterk said. “We have to do other things too, grab those other rebounds and really work on those intangibles.”

The last time the Spartans played in the 5A Great 8 was in 2017 when they lost to eventual state champion Grandview.

But the desire to get back to that point has been there ever since. And now that the team is headed up to the building where the 5A state champions will eventually be crowned there’s almost a calm feeling amongst the players.

“It’s a really amazing feeling,” Sterk said. “We really have nothing to lose now. We can just go play and go try to kill it up there.”

Getting to this point of the season means every team that the Spartans will see from now on will be playing at an elite level. And although Leasure saw some jitters that need to be worked out before Friday, she also knows that holding a team like Fruita to eight field goals, none of which came from 3-point land, is the kind of defense that can win games in the Coliseum.

“We had to adjust a little bit and there’s where (Fruita) got those back door cuts,” Leasure said. “We just decided that we were going to stay in front and lock them down. And they did that.”