CAVE CREEK – Against a bigger team in what has become a wide-open tournament, Flowing Wells stayed with its aggressive style and a zone defense drawn up to keep Cactus Shadows from dominating inside.
Except, the fourth-seeded Falcons from the far northeast suburb of Phoenix shot from the outside anyway, making 12 3-pointers on the night, including six in the third quarter.
The Caballeros didn’t waver.
“I liked our game plan going in, we don’t play a lot of zone during the regular season so to come out here in a playoff game and play zone, something we practiced for two days, but we thought it was the right game plan,” coach Michael Perkins said.
“We stuck with it and we knew they were a good shooting team. We knew they would make some 3s. We thought it was the right game plan and it worked out for us.”
It did.
Leamsi Acuna had 21 points to lead Flowing Wells past Cactus Shadows 67-61 on Friday in the Class 5A girls state quarterfinals. And because top-seed Queen Creek Casteel had to forfeit its first-round win, the Caballeros will face No. 8 Gilbert at home Wednesday in the semifinals.
No. 5 Flowing Wells will be looking for its first berth in the state final since its runner-up finish of 2013 in what was then Division II.
“They might be taller than me but they are definitely not stronger than me,” Acuna said. “That’s what I always say.”
The sophomore point and leading scorer runs the offense and stayed aggressive on defense against the Falcons until the 5:34 mark of the third quarter. Flowing Wells led 39-32 but a teammate hit Acuna on her right leg, she landed and had to helped off the court. She only ended up being out for three minutes, but Cactus Shadows had already tied it by then.
The game was a see-saw battle for the final 10 minutes. Only after Acuna hit a pair of free throws with 3:11 remaining did Flowing Wells take the lead for good. The Caballeros hit 7 of 8 free throws in the final minutes to secure the win. After Acuna hit the foul shots, she stole the ball on the other end and scored a layup to give Flowing Wells a 62-58 advantage with 2:45 left. Cactus Shadows missed its next time down the floor and had to resort to fouling in the final minute. Maria Yanez hit two and Acuna hit 3 of 4 from the line.
Perkins said it was his team’s best free-throw shooting performance of the season.
“And that’s what it takes to win against a team like that, that’s what it takes to win in the playoffs. The kids stepped up when the game got big. That’s what they had to do.”
And now one win from Championship Saturday, guard Milinda Arguellez, who added 17 points, put the team mindset as such.
“As soon as we found out that the No. 1 team was out, we were all hyped about it,” Arguellez said. “We were like, OK, we are going to take this home.”
