Rematches permeate 5A-I boys and girls basketball semifinals

February 28, 2011 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Each of the four 5A-I boys and girls basketball semifinal matchups Thursday at Jobing.com Arena have been played earlier this season at least once. So this is check-up time as the teams grapple for the championship trophies, which will finally be handed out Friday night.

On the girls side, No. 5 Xavier takes on No. 1 St. Mary's. St. Mary's was not at full strength when the teams met in early January, but stil managed to prevail in game that was tight through the final two minutes. Xavier won handily in the first round and was pushed to the final buzzer in the quarterfinals by Highland. St. Mary's, as has been the case in most of its games, breezed past  its first two state opponents.

The other girls semi pits No. 2 Chandler and No. 3 Mesa Mtn. View. These squads met 10 days ago with Mountain View scoring and owning its only lead in the final 10 seconds in a 50-49 win. The Toros have had two much tougher games in the tournament compared to Chandler, which has won in routs twice. Mtn. View escaped Hamilton in the quarters, 50-49, despite having six players on the floor in the final six seconds that went undetected by game officials.

The team that gets the least amount of respect on the boys side is top-seed Buena. All the Colts have done is win all 18 of its power-point games and two tight home games in the first two rounds of state. Most are expect Buena to fall to No. 4 Mesa Mtn. View when the teams meet for the second time this season. Mountain View beat Buena at Mountain View in the VisitMesa. com Tournament in late December. The Toros won by 10. They led by as many as 25 in the first half of that game, but saw that lead sliced to single-digits in the second half as the Toros exhibited a weakness they've dealt with from time to time with pressure on their backcourt. This game will determine who the real Toros and Colts are; the first-half Toros of meeting one or the second-half Colts of meeting one.

The Mesa-Brophy semifinal will be the third meeting between the Fiesta Region foes this season. Mesa's recipe for winning generally results in Jahii Carson scoring around half of Mesa's points and making the key basket or free throws at crunch time. No. 2 Mesa defeated  No. 6 Brophy in the previous meetings. The last one in late January (Brophy's last loss) at Mesa  saw the Jackrabbits prevail with their best balance of the season. Four starters scored in double figures. Brophy made a late run from a 16-point deficit to make it a four-point game with 1:30 left before foul shooting pushed the Jackrabbits over the top. Carson and  Brophy's Sia Tummala were outstanding offensively in that one.