MHS girls win Hoops Holiday Classic, boys finish 4-2

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With four strong victories in two days, the Maricopa High School girls’ basketball team captured the Maricopa Hoops Holiday Classic championship for the second straight year Friday night.

The Rams defeated Glendale in a morning game, 63-37 and then completed their run through the event with a 54-25 win over Tucson Pueblo.

The Maricopa boys won all three of their Friday games to complete the tournament with a 4-2 record.

There was little doubt from the start that the girls would claim the title after racing to a 19-1 lead at the end of the first quarter against Pueblo.

Derona Mitchell and Jahnei Johnson paced the quick start with six points each.

Trailing 30-10 at halftime, Glendale put a slight scare into the Rams by scoring the first seven points of the second half, but MHS responded with a 17-0 run that put the contest out of reach. Mitchell had nine of her game-high 21 points during the run.

“We have a tough time going for the throat,” said head coach Jenn Miller, who expressed pride in the way her club handled the Cardinals’ threat.

Johnson contributed 10 points in the win and Paige Ellis added eight.

In their first game Friday the Maricopa girls had little trouble dispensing with Glendale. The Rams surged to a 23-8 lead at the quarter and had things well in hand by halftime with a 43-10 margin.

Ellis and Johnson each poured in 13 points in the opening half.

The big lead gave Miller a chance to give reserves a lot of extra playing time. She began the second half with a lineup consisting of three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior.

“That was kind of our goal,” Miller said. “We wanted to get everybody scoring and everyone got at least one point.

“We told them we wanted the lead to stay where it was and they did a fairly decent job of it.”

Johnson eventually finished with 15 points, Mitchell contributed 10, all in the first half. Glendale’s Dana Patterson scored a game-high 16.

The MHS boys had a successful Friday with two easy wins and a thrilling victory against Seton Catholic in the final game of the tournament.

The day began with an easy win over Ajo, 65-26.

The Rams raced to a 14-0 lead in less than five minutes and coasted to a 37-7 halftime margin. That gave coach Andy Branchik the same chance Miller had to use reserves, and he did so liberally.

“I thought the kids played well together,” Branchik said. “I thought they moved the ball, they ran stuff, they settled down and didn’t move 900 miles an hour, which sometimes we do. They made a lot of nice extra passes to their teammates for good, open-look jumpers.”

Chauncey Hayslip, a recent JV call-up who replaced the injured Vince Christian, wound up leading the team in scoring with 16 points, while Nick Webber added 10.

Taran Foulger chipped in with eight points and Marcus Lowe and Reece Ivie helped out with seven in a balanced attack. Ajo was led by Jose Valenzuela who scored 10, including all seven of his team’s first half points.

In an afternoon contest Maricopa handled Antelope, 63-29. The Rams surged to a 44-22 halftime lead and coasted to the victory. DeVaughn Elledge paced MHS with 18 points, while Lowe added eight.

Against Seton Catholic, Maricopa followed a familiar pattern, falling behind early before rallying for a 64-61 win.

The Sentinels drained four three-pointers in the first quarter and built a 17-6 lead. The margin reached as many as 15 points, 30-15, before Maricopa closed to within 32-22 at halftime.

The Rams gradually chipped away at the deficit until Tim Boyer’s short jump shot gave MHS its first lead since2-0, to start the fourth quarter. A layup by Josh Jimenez put SCHS back on top, but then Nick Webber canned a three-pointer to give Maricopa a lead it would never relinquish.

That started a 10-0 run for the Rams, building a 56-46 lead, but Seton battled back to within four, 57-53, on a driving layup by Kaleb Krick.

A basket and a free throw by Elledge, plus two more foul shots by Steven Kogutkiewicz expanded the lead to 61-53 with 1:09 to play.

The Sentinels closed to within 61-59 before Nick Samuels hit two clutch free throws with 10 seconds to play.

After an SCHS basket by Adam Engelbert made it a two-point game again with four seconds left, the Sentinels immediately fouled Daniel Cross. He made one of two. A length-of-the-court pass to Jack Harrington gave him one last 3-point attempt at the buzzer, but it failed.

“We knocked a couple of shots down and our confidence went up,” said assistant coach Charles Litt. “We really started believing in our defense which turned the game around as well.

Lowe scored 22 for MHS and was followed by Cross and Kogutkiewicz with nine each.

Branchik was thrilled with the way the tournament ran. The 33-games played over two days all started early and went without a hitch.

The Rams now have an 8-6 record. Next week they visit Valley Christian Tuesday and Coolidge Friday.

***ADVERTISEMENT***Other Thursday boys’ tournament scores:
Seton Catholic 80, Ajo 14
North Pointe Prep 86, Tohono O’Odham 45
Tempe 85, Seton Catholic 54
Antelope 50, San Luis 34
Antelope 58, Tohono O’Odham 47
Tempe 69, San Luis 39
Antelope 63, Ajo 33
Tohono O’Odham 66, Ajo 50
Seton Catholic 73, North Pointe Prep 64
Thursday girls’ scores:
Cholla 45, Glendale 36
Pueblo 67, Tohono O’Odham 44
Pueblo 66, Glendale 35
Friday boys’ scores:
Seton Catholic 64, San Luis 30
Tempe 71, North Pointe Prep 64
Seton Catholic 69, Tohono O’Odham 33
Tempe 84, Tohono O’Odham 39
North Pointe Prep 59, Antelope 34
San Luis 46, Ajo 35
North Pointe Prep 71, Ajo 33