Playing for the second time in one day, the teams showed a lot of hustle and determination. And in the end we had some memorable games from the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley.

Girls: Mogollon 58, Baboquivari 42

Fifth-seeded Mogollon will be taking its first-ever state championship trophy back to Heber with a 58-42 victory over second-seeded Baboquivari. The AIA golden basketball trophy will replace the replica coach Jim Maner and his team put together as motivation for the season. Games scores, records and positive sayings were scrawled into it as the team went through its schedule. And the “TBA” spot for where the championship goes can now be filled in.

The school, which opened in 1989, was also making its first appearance in the championship game. The Mustangs showed they are a team on the rise by defeating the top two seeds in the same day to earn the hardware.

“It’s huge for our school. It’s hard to get here in basketball, and we’re not really a basketball school,” said Maner.

Falling behind early and trailing by 10 points after the first quarter, Mogollon started to use its height and crash the boards to get back into the game. The Mustangs outscored the Warriors 34-15 in the second half, fueled by Lauren Hancock’s 12 points in the third and fourth on her way to a game-high 17. Jilliana Maner added 14 after putting down 16 in the semifinal.

“We were never nervous (after the first quarter). We’ve been in those situations a few times before and we’ve won almost all of them. We just made the adjustments. Switching from zone to man made a huge difference for us,” Maner said.

Baboquivari has now finished as the state runner-up the past two seasons.

Earlier in the first semifinal of the day, Mogollon disrupted the smaller and quicker Rock Point guards en route to a 49-44 victory. The Mustangs’ size down low held the top-ranked Cougars well below their season average of 66.3 points per game.

Boys: The Gregory School 79, Ray 51

The second-ranked Hawks dominated for most of the game and came away with its second straight state championship 79-51 over fourth-ranked Ray. The Mustangs, after pulling away from Mogollon in the day’s semifinal, didn’t have enough left in the tank for this one.

Falling behind early in the first, TGS went on an 18-0 run near the end of the period before a Bearcat free throw stopped the surge. But the Hawks were up 28-10 at that point and never looked back. Gregory School’s relentless pressure defense forced a multitude of turnovers, with a good deal of them on Ray inbounds plays that were turned right around for another bucket.

“We started the game a little sluggish even though we talked about starting with high energy. Defensively we were gambling a little bit. That’s not our style,” said head coach Craig Everson. “The spark came when we went full court on them and picked up the tempo. We felt we had the speed and skill advantage.”

Senior Demari Harris was hobbled for most of the day but played through it, scoring eight points in the championship game and had 23 on the day. His twin brother Tomari picked up the slack and dropped in a game-high 28 points. Ray was led by senior Stone Patterson’s 21 points.

The Gregory School almost didn’t make it to the second game of the day after a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter dwindled to just three with 12 seconds left against Fort Thomas. After Harris missed a pair of free throws, the Apaches brought the ball down the court with one last chance. But Cameron Anderson’s long three-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the backboard and rim. The Hawks had escaped with the 51-48 win. The Harris twins paced the team with 15 points each in that one.

“The amazing thing about these kids is that they play for each other. They’re a tight-knit family. Even though this was a long week, having been here since Wednesday, those kids enjoyed every minute of it. And we’re going to stay one more night because they want to be together one more night,” Everson added.