D-III late quarterfinal hoops roundup

February 25, 2016 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Snowflake had some tight games last year on the way to the Division III boys basketball crown and this year is proving no exception.

The Lobos made enough free throws down the stretch Thursday afternoon to fend off upset-minded North Canyon, 57-49, in a quarterfinal game at Gila River Arena. Snowflake won its first round game by three over Moon Valley after trailing by 12 in the third period. On Thursday the Lobos never trailed, but the final period ended up too close for comfort

No. 2 Snowflake (30-3) advances to  Friday's semifinals against No. 3 Scottsdale Christian, which knocked off Window Rock earlier in the day 54-34. No. 10 North Canyon, who was 2-23 last year competing in D-I, finished a comeback season at 19-12 and making Snowflake sweat out the victory.

Snowflake managed to make 7 of 12 free throws in the final 3:39 to gradually push a 50-49 lead to the final score. The Lobos defense did he job late, not allowing North Canyon to score in the final four minutes. Snowflakes wins in this year's tournament are both against teams that played above D-III last year -- NC D-I and Moon Valley D-II. Snowflake led by as many as 12 points in the second and third periods only to see North Canyon rally behind Charles Howard and Caleb Cota.

Kegan Bjornn led Snowflake with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Jordan Gardner pitched in with 14 points and point guard Kurt Wood added nine points and nine assists. Wood, Bjornn, Gardner and Tyler Claridge combined for the late free throws.

Cota led North Canyon with 14 points and Howard had 11.

"We didn't shoot all that well, but the defense gutted it out for us," Snowflake coach Andy Wood said. 

ESTRELLA FOOTHILLS 69, CIBOLA 55: The top-seeded Wolves pulled away in the third quarter to defeat the No. 9 Raiders. EFh outscored Ciblola 20-12 in the third period to double its halftime lead and put the game essentially on ice.

Estrella Foothills (28-3) faces Winslow, a 50-49 winner over Mingus, in Friday's semifinals at 7 p.m. at Gila River Arena. Cibola capped its year at 24-7. Its the first semifinal berth for EFH since the Wolves won the 3A (D-III) title in 2010.

Rex Greabell, Antaveus Brown and Grant Greabell continued to do what they've done most of the season - score and score a bunch. The trio combined for 61 of the 69 points. Senior post Rex Greabell led the way with 28 points. Brown had 16 and got EFH off to a quick start with eight of his points in the first quarter. Grant Greabell checked in with 17 points . Ricky Robinson did the playmaking for EFH with nine assists. 

Terrell Phillips led Cibola with 14 points and six rebounds. Michael Gazda also scored in double figures for the Raiders with 11.

GIRLS

WINDOW ROCK 41, PAGE 39:
The Scouts nearly lost an 11-point lead in the final 3 1/2 minutes, but hung on to edge the Sand Devils at Gila River Arena. Window Rock (23-10) meets South Mountain on Friday at 1:45 in a semifinal at Gila River Arena. Window Rock avenged a 66-33 loss from to Page back in early January. Page finished up 28-5.

Vanessa James putback with 3:33 to play gave Window Rock a 41-30 lead. It was their final basket and proved to be the game winner. Page rallied behind Tripper Tate and Ashley Dempsey, but couldn't sink any of three shots in the final seven seconds that could have tied the game.

Alicia Hale paced Window Rock with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Triana Francis added nine points and James chipped in with seven. Dempsey led Page with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Page downfall was its shooting. The Sand Devils shot 17 percent in the first half and not much better in the second. For the game they connected on 12 of 53 shots (23 percent). Window Rock shot 44 percent for the game -- consistent half to half.

VALLEY CHRISTIAN 57, WINSLOW 47:  The No. 1 Trojans raced to a 19-point lead in first half and back-pedaled their way to a victory over the determined ninth-seeded Bulldogs to reach the semifinals.

Valley Christian (30-2) takes on No. 4 seed Chinle on Friday at 5:15 at Gila River Arena. Winslow, (17-17), who lost to Valley Christian in early January, 62-33, closed out its season at .500, but not before giving the Trojans a scare.

Valley Christian's strong opening half, or at least the first 12 minutes, was huge. Reserve guard Hailey Russell sank some early threes to help VC to a 20-6 first-quarter lead. That lead grew to 29-10 with just less than four minutes left in the half. That's when Winslow began its comeback that never got closet than eight, but seemed much more threatening.

Russell scored a game-high 18 points -- 13 in the first half. The past month Russell has been half of a a nice 1-2 punch off the bench along with guard Bethany Wolph, who returned at that time from a knee injury. Wolph is now out for the season after suffering a broken finger in the the Trojans' round of 16 win over Monument Valley. Wolph was averaging 11 points a game in the 11 games she appeared in this season.

Winslow's rally was paced by guard Danielle James, who scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half and sank the Bulldogs only two threes of the game to help close the deficit. Winslow had three more players reach double digits scoring -- Siig Lil'bilNaghahi (11) and Adrianna Singer and Justine Butterfield (10 each). Butterfield added 11 rebounds.

With Winslow down 51-43 with 2 1/2 minutes left, VC set up looking like they would go four corners. A couple passes and some penetration , however, led to a nice back-door feed to Megan Timmer, for a layup. Timmer added another a bit later to seal the victory. Timmer finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Twelve of her points were scored in the second half. Anna Gorman completed VC 's double-figure scorers with 11 points.