Dobson girls basketball coach Tyler Dumas didn't sugarcoat his team's loss last week to Ironwood in supersectional play -- a loss that snapped an 18-game winning streak for the Lady Mustangs. "Ironwood beat us, they played better than we did and deserved to win," Dumas said.

What that loss meant was 10 days for Dobson to prepare for its first Division I state tournament game. That was Friday night against Boulder Creek, a team it had played twice before and beaten twice in tight games. The rest and practice time was a godsend the Lady Mustangs used to the fullest.

Sparked by the play of senior guard Dyesha Stahley, Dobson managed to top Boulder Creek for a third time with a 58-46 decision at Dobson High. Dobson (26-2) advances to the quarterfinals on Wednesday (Feb. 25) against Hamilton, second-round winner over Ironwood. The game will be at Grand Canyon University with start time to be determined. Boulder Creek finished the season 22-10. The Lady Jaguars ousted Perry in the first round two days ago.

"We used the time to rest some kids who were banged up a bit at the end," Dumas said. "I gave Alexis, Dyesha and Monay some days off to heal and we worked on fundamentals. We looked at a lot of film trying to find the best way to defend them. They're good at running their offense. We wanted to extend them, and make them work for shots."

Dobson led for all but about two tor three minutes of the game late in the first period to early in the second. Boulder Creek led 11-10 after the first period, but Dobson's half-court defense and the Lady Mustangs ability to get to the foul line via penetration and rebounding proved fatal. Dosbon outscored Boulder Creek 16-6 in the decisive second period. Dobson shot 30 percent from the field in the first half, but made 14 of 18 free throws in building a 26-17 lead at intermission.

Stahley was 6-for-6 from the line in the first half and finished the half with 10 points. She totaled 19 points for the game, and cashed in another 7 of 8 free throws in the second half. Dobson was 29 of 41 as a team from the charity stripe. Boulder Creek was 5-for-11. Senior center Sara Nichols was strong on the boards as were Alexis Todd and Monay Mariscal. Nichols scored 10 points, double her average. She was 6-for-6 at the line.Todd, Dobson's leading scorer, finished with half her average (9 points).

I thought Dyesha had a tremendous game," Dumas said. "They shot more free throws than we did the last time, I think they were plus 10 on us. We wanted to take the ball at them."

Boulder Creek's leading scorer Darian Slaga tossed in a team-high 18 points, but the senior guard had to work hard for all of them. Slaga made no threes and did most of her scoring from 10 to 12 feet. Boulder Creek made only two threes in the first three periods -- none in the second and third quarters. They made three threes in the final period, but the game was out of reach by then. Dobson led by double digits nearly all the final period.

Guard Haley Villegas and forward Mallory Vivola, had caused Dobson problems in the prior two meetings, Vivola finished with 11 points before fouling out late and Villegas totaled six points.