The Maricopa High School boys basketball team that had been struggling with a 1-6 record since the start of 2012 has found the right prescription – a two-game win streak against a good Phoenix Horizon Honors team.
The Rams began their turn-around Tuesday with a 45-40 road win against the Eagles, who entered the game with an 18-6 record.
Two nights later, back in its own gym, MHS held off a late Horizon rally and won, 50-38, lifting its record to 11-13.
“That’s an 18-win team,” said Rams’ head coach Andy Branchik after his team completed the sweep Thursday night.
“You didn’t see it as much in this game, but we showed better patience,” he said, explaining the reversal of fortune.
Part of the change has resulted from a switch in point guards. Branchik inserted Steven Kogutkiewicz in the key position Tuesday night.
“We only had six turnovers in the game at their place. We took care of the ball and that was the difference in a five-point win,” Branchik said.
Kogutkiewicz also helped Maricopa get off to a good start Thursday.
After the Eagles grabbed a quick 9-5 lead, he scored six straight points as part of a 10-4 run that gave MHS a 15-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Horizon’s 6-6 center Tyler Popescu made a layup to start the second period to tie the score, but a short jump shot by the Rams’ Adrian Coronado gave his team a lead it would never relinquish, although it would come close.
Early in the third quarter Maricopa squandered a chance to break the game open.
Leading 28-19, Maricopa went scoreless for four minutes and 24 seconds. HHHS, however, only scored two points itself.
A pair of baskets by DeVaughn Elledge and a layup on a fast break by Marcus Lowe lifted MHS to its largest lead, 11 points, just before the end of the third quarter. The Eagles, however, battled back to within two, 38-36, with 3:38 to play, making a Maricopa sweep of the two-game set seem in doubt.
The Rams responded perfectly. Four different players, Andres Giron, Lowe, Elledge and Kogutkiewicz contributed to a 10-point run that re-built the margin to 48-36, helping seal the victory.“Our defensive pressure stepped up and we stopped letting them get to the basket,” said Branchik. “Everything in that run came off a turnover by them.”
Thursday, Kogutkiewicz and Lowe led the Rams with 13 points a piece, while Elledge added 10. Taylor Hudzinski scored 15 of Horizons’ 38 points.
In Tuesday’s game Elledge had 16 and Lowe 15.
Maricopa faces a daunting task Friday night. It hosts Desert Vista, the state’s No. 1-ranked team in Division I in the AIA rankings at 7 p.m.
