Mihir Sinhasan is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Sunrise Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com

The Sunrise Mountain Mustangs girls’ basketball team beat the Canyon View Jaguars 52-47 in the 5A State Finals at Arizona Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum on March 3, 2023, to win the program’s first state title.

Then-seniors power forward Mackenzie Dunham, shooting guard/small forward Reena Bhakta, and shooting guard Mackenzie Nielsen led the offensive charge that season, averaging 46.9 points per game combined.

But with the trio graduating from Sunrise Mountain High School last May, the Mustangs will need a new set of key players to defend their title as they start the upcoming season.

“That was always something that was their goal: get back and win it,” Sunrise Mountain head coach Jenn Tolle said about last year’s senior class. “It was a long journey for them to get back there. So, to actually accomplish the goal was pretty cool.”

Tolle has returned excellent play and deep tournament runs to the program since taking over in 2012. Before her tenure, the Mustangs last made deep runs in the state tournament in the late 2000s. They made the 5A Division II semifinals in 2006 and the 5A Division II state quarterfinals in 2007 and 2008.

The Mustangs have made the 5A state quarterfinals every year since 2019. That period also includes a trip to the final in 2020 and to the semifinals in 2022 alongside last season’s championship win. The team has also registered five losses or less in each of the past four years.

Sunrise Mountain had to previously rebuild after the 2020 season. It lost its second and third highest scorers, power forward/small forward Teryn Demaree (10.8 points per game) and point guard Sydney Bickel (7.8 ppg), to graduation.

Nielsen and Bhakta, then sophomores, stepped up offensively. Nielsen led the team in scoring, averaging 13.3 ppg that year. 2020’s lead scorer, senior point guard/shooting guard Julie Diveney, averaged 11.8 ppg. Bhakta was third with 10.2 ppg.

With this season’s group of returners, Tolle said she believes the Mustangs can continue their prominent level of play.

“I’m really proud of the group of returners that we have,” Tolle said. “I feel like they took advantage of the opportunities they had to learn from those other kids. They got to play in some high-pressure games and see what that level looks like.”

There are 10 players on this season’s roster. This includes two seniors, six juniors, one sophomore and one freshman. Six of those 10 are returners.

Shooting guard/point guard Saydee Sifuentes and small forward Kylee Inman provide senior leadership to the team. While Sifuentes is a newcomer, Inman is a returner.

There are six juniors on the squad. Five of them played on varsity last season with power forward Kara Mackintosh being the only newcomer.

Leading that group is small forward/power forward Savanna Dotray. She had 8.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, leading last year’s underclassmen in all three categories.

Helping to fill the shoes of her former teammates, Dotray said she wants to emphasize group knowledge within the team as a leader on the stat sheet and amongst her current teammates.

“It’s all about understanding and knowledge,” said Dotray, who had been playing with last year’s seniors since she was 8 years old. “If one person knows something and others don’t, then you’re not going to get anywhere. You play as a team. It’s all five players.”

Shooting guard Jaden Maza has been on the varsity squad since freshman year, like many of her fellow juniors. She said that she hopes her class can have great chemistry and talent, which was held between the seniors last season.

“It’s hard to play up to that standard,” Maza said. “But it really holds us to a higher level. We want to play up to that level and keep that title of being great.”

Center/power forward/small forward Addison Wiemann is the lone sophomore on the team. A multi-sport athlete at Sunrise Mountain, she played on the school’s volleyball team in the fall. Wiemann is also the tallest player on the team, standing at 6 feet, 2 inches.

Rounding out the roster is freshman power forward Omoye-Ojavan Aguebor. Putting freshmen on the varsity roster is not new for Tolle, who has brought four or five in some seasons. She will continue to do it when she sees players that can fit into the team’s environment.

Sunrise Mountain is 1-1 through its first two games this season. It beat the Chaparral Firebirds 62-30 on November 27 and fell to the Horizon Huskies 43-39 on November 29.

Sunrise Mountain 62, Chaparral 30

Tolle said her players were ”shaking off some cobwebs” early in the opener that happened a day after Thanksgiving weekend. But she said they improved in the second half.

After Sunrise Mountain held a 6-0 lead halfway through the opening quarter, Chaparral answered with a 9-2 run over the next two minutes. The Mustangs responded with an 11-0 run in the following two minutes.

Wiemann, playing in her first varsity game, led the way with nine points in the first quarter en route to a double-double performance.

With volleyball season ending three weeks before the game, Wiemann did not get as much time to practice with the team. But she said that her relationship with her teammates has helped her gel with the team’s philosophy and culture.

“I knew all the girls prior [to the season] and they were all open and welcoming,” Wiemann said. “I felt like that really helped. I felt trusted by them, and I felt comfortable with how they run the offense. I got their plays down pretty fast, which helped.”

Dotray was the only starter playing for majority of the second quarter. So, four bench players, three of which were first-year varsity members, appeared on the court.

The Mustangs played scrappy in that second quarter. They stole the ball from the Firebirds and caused turnovers. When the starting five returned to the court with 1 minute, 34 seconds left in the half, the Mustangs led 22-12. The home side closed out the half with a 7-2 run and led 29-14 at the break.

“They’ve been doing a great job in practice,” Tolle said about her bench players. “I think they knew they were going to get some opportunities here at the beginning of the season to find a role on the team and show what they bring. I think they did a great job tonight.”

All the starters were on the court to start the second half. Four of them scored in the third quarter, as the Mustangs led 44-26.

Sunrise Mountain extended its lead in the fourth quarter. Led by their forwards, the Mustangs outscored the Firebirds 18-4 in the final frame to win 62-30.

Horizon 39, Sunrise Mountain 43

While Tolle said her players improved their man-to-man defense against the Horizon Huskies, the girls from Peoria dropped their first game of the season 43-39 on November 29.

The Mustangs trailed until Wiemann’s two-pointer in the second quarter. She gave them a 15-14 advantage with 3:48 left in the second quarter, capping off an 8-2 run. The two sides traded the lead over the next few minutes until senior point guard/shooting guard Mia Brown’s triple gave Horizon the upper hand, leading 22-19 at halftime.

The visitors went on an 11-4 run in the first three minutes of the second half. But the hosting Mustangs answered, trailing 35-29 at the end of the third quarter.

After Wiemann’s old-fashioned three and Dotray’s two-pointer, the Mustangs were within one point of the Huskies with 5:36 left in the game. But they continued to trail as the game entered the final minute.

With Sunrise Mountain down 40-38, Demaree was fouled with 14.9 seconds left and headed to the free-throw line for two shots.

She made the first one but missed the second, forcing her to foul the Huskies’ junior center, Ella Frazier.

Despite Frazier missing both free throws, Horizon maintained possession on the baseline. After another Mustang foul, sophomore point guard/shooting guard Paige Schiltz went one for two from the line with less than seven seconds left.

With one chance remaining, Demaree missed a long three. Then, Schiltz was fouled and sunk both of her free throws with 0.6 seconds left to give the Huskies the road upset.

“We just didn’t convert enough on offense to pull it out tonight,” Tolle said. “But I’m not unhappy with the effort. I thought they played really hard.”

The Mustangs make their first road trip of the season today at 7 p.m. when they take on the Cactus Cobras.

As her team continues to defend its state title, Tolle said this year’s Mustangs are a work in progress with more opportunities to grow.

“I think our execution [is] okay,” Tolle said. “We have some more scoring opportunities that we’re leaving on the boards... [But] we did not play in a preseason tournament. So, with this being our second game, I felt pretty good about it.”