A late third-quarter surge and solid finish over the final 80 seconds allowed top-seed Corona del Sol to advance to the Division I boys basketball finals with a 61-53 victory over No. 5 Desert Mountain late Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

Junior guard Casey Benson tallied 22 points and  senior Adam Gleave came up with 13 points and huge points late in the third and fourth quarters to help preserve the victory. Corona del Sol (28-4) faces Pinnacle on Saturday Feb. 23 for the big-school title and chance at a repeat at 4 p.m. at Jobing.com Arena. Pinnacle topped Cesar Chavez in Thursday's earlier semifinal.

Five points from Gleave and one of four driving layups for hoops in the second half by  Benson turned things Corona del Sol's way heading to the final period. Corona took a 40-34 advantage to the fourth period and stretched it to 46-36 with six minutes left.

Desert Mountain's three-point shooting got the Wolves back in the game as a pair of treys from junior guard Will Goff cut the lead to 46-43 with 3:48 left. Over the final three minutes Corona nursed a two-to three-point lead.

a reverse layup by Desert Mountain's Rolando Rhymes with 1:21 left pulled Desert Mountain within 52-50. Corona's Bryan Siefker madethe first of two free throws. The second was rebounded by teammate Cassius Peat and Corona ended up adding another point on a Gleaver free throw for a 54-50 lead with 1:06 to go.

Desert Mountain (25-6) worked hard for its next shot, settling for a 3-pointer by Diego Magana with 32 seconds left that was off target. Corona gained possession and inbounded the ball to Gleave who broke free to score on a layup. He was also fouled and completed the three-point play. That made it 57-50 with 28 seconds left and closed out Desert Mountain. 

"We find a way to win," Corona del Sol coach Sam Duane Jr. said. "We make plays when we need to make plays."

Corona shot well from the perimeter in the first half, making 6-of-9 threes that helped it take a 29-27 lead at intermission. The Aztecs were more aggressive in the second half taking the ball to the basket with Benson leading the way. Benson spread his scoring evenly with 12 points in the first half (three 3s and a three-point play) and 10 points (no threes in the second half).

Desert Mountain's hot hand belonged to Goff with 16 points (4 3s). Rhymes didn't control the game as well as he did against Mesa on Tuesday in the quarterfinals, but finished with a team-high 18 points.

"We didn't want him hurting us from the free-throw line in," Duane Jr. said. "If he made 3s and beat us with 3s so be it."

Rhymes made a couple perimeter shots in the opening half and scored a pair of late layups. He finished 6 of 13 from the field. Desert Mountain made 19 of 52 shots for the game, including seven threes.