The best game on Monday at the MLK Classic didn’t occur in the back-to-back primetime slot with Sabino-Ironwood Ridge or Sahuaro-Mountain View. Instead, it was the final girls basketball game of the day at McKale Center.
A clash between the two best teams in Tucson, Pueblo (18-2) and Sahuaro (16-2) and it was a finish for the ages. Tied at 43 with less than 30 seconds left, Pueblo had the final possession.
After a missed shot, sophomore center Jasmine Belt grabbed the rebound and made the game-winning layup and drew a foul with less than two seconds to play. The Warriors won 45-43 in nail-biting fashion.
Head coach Ismael Galindo had to take a deep breath after a win over one of the best Class 5A teams in Southern Arizona settled in.
“It’s good, because everyone wants to talk about 6A, 4A, 5A and all this other stuff. We’re 4A and we already beat two of the top 5A teams and a 6A top-10 team. … We can play with anybody,” Galindo said.
Baboquivari’s ‘40 minutes of hell’
The second game of the MLK Classic slate was a 1A battle between the Sells Baboquivari Warriors and the St. David Tigers. Baboquivari drove just over an hour to get to McKale Center. St. David drove less than an hour to play a rough 32 minutes.
From the opening tip to the final buzzer, the Warriors didn’t give the Tigers an inch of breathing room. Baboquivari jumped out to a 19-2 lead, applied full-court pressure and didn’t take its foot off the pedal for the entire game in the 68-43 victory.
The Warriors recorded 14 steals as a team, which converted to several fast-break buckets.
“I like to play up-and-down and give other teams ‘40 minutes of hell,’” Boboquivari head coach Art Lopez said, in a reference to how the Arkansas teams of the 1990s played defense. “That’s pretty much how I adapted my style of coaching to.”
What was even more intriguing by the up-tempo style of play was how those missed shots or steals led to points. On several possessions, particularly in the second half, the basketball never even touched the court.
“I told them at the beginning of the year, we want to double the amount of shots our opponents take so that means we have to be pushing, pushing, pushing,” Lopez said. “We begin practice everyday with a 30-minute layup drill where the ball does not even touch the floor. That’s our goal: Hustle, grab, go.”
Rivalry of Santa Cruz County
The most hostile environment at McKale this season might not have been the top-20 matchup between UA and ASU, but rather two schools that are separated by 15 minutes: Nogales and Rio Rico.
Roughly 2,000-3,000 Rio Rico and Nogales fans packed into the arena, and filled most of the midsection of the lower bowl. Nogales handled Rio Rico by 23, but both fan bases chanted anything and everything to create a venomous game.
“It’s always been like that every since I played my freshman year,” said Nogales senior captain Sam Legleu. “Whether it’s freshmen, (junior varsity) or varsity, everybody in the community comes out and supports both teams. It’s always a great event.”
When one of the Nogales players shot free throws, the Rio Rico fans chanted “super senior.” In response, the Nogales fans chanted “scooooreboard” and put the east side of McKale to rest. Nogales won 68-45 and moved to 13-3 on the season.
