Boys basketball player of the year
Name: Lester Medford
School: Amphitheater
Year in school: Senior
Sport: Boys basketball
From the archives: As Amphitheater's Tim Derksen made his way off the court Saturday following his team's 87-77 win over Tempe High School in the 4A-II state championship game, the junior couldn't help but think about the last time he walked off the floor after a state final.
"After we lost to Santa Rita (in the 2010 title game), we were crushed," Derksen said of last year's 86-84 loss to the Eagles.
"For us, this season started the second last season ended. We were committed to working as hard as possible for the next 365 days to get back here. That loss gave us fire the entire season. Every practice, every game," Derksen."
Point taken.
Amphi (29-2) won its first basketball state championship and capped its brilliant 2010-11 season in typical Panthers fashion on the Jobing.com Arena floor.
Defensively, Amphi put on a full-court press against the Buffaloes from the opening tip and forced more than 25 turnovers.
Offensively, the Panthers quickly pushed the ball up the court every time they had the chance.
"That's Amphi basketball," senior guard Domineik Banks said.
"That's how we play. Everyone knows it, but not everyone can stop it."
The Buffaloes did a decent job of stopping it right away, trailing just 20-17 after the first quarter.
Over the next five minutes, everything changed.
Amphi went on a 21-5 run to take a 41-22 lead right before halftime.
"It's inevitable with our style of play, our style of defense, that the other team is going to get tired, and we're going to be able to make our move," Amphi coach Ben Hurley said.
"That's what happened in the second quarter, I think. We just hit our stride and they started to get a little tired."
The Panthers were able to do the majority of their damage without much help from their leading scorer, senior Lester Medford. The 5-foot-11-inch point guard scored two points in the first half and had three fouls at the break.
It didn't matter.
Junior reserve guard Tony Lillard hit four three-pointers in the first half and finished with 19 points. Banks had four points, five assists and five steals in the first half.
Derksen had 14 in the first and finished with 26 and 12 rebounds. Junior big man Charles Benson also contributed with 12 points.
"I've been trying to tell people all year it's not just me and Lester," Derksen said. "It's the entire team. If one of us struggles or something, we have five or six other guys that can come in and pick it up.
"I think that's why we're so good."
What it all added up to was Amphi's first basketball state championship since the school opened in 1939. The Panthers had appeared in just two title games, 2010 and 1949.
"The Amphitheater community deserves this," Hurley said. "There have been some great teams that have come through Amphi and we're the first to win a championship. It's very, very special."
Jordan Baker, a Pepperdine signee, finished with a game-high 36 points for Tempe. He scored 14 in the fourth quarter once the game was out of hand. — Daniel Berk, 2011
