High school basketball: Sahuaro boys knock off No. 1 to reach Arizona state title game

GILBERT — Matched against a bigger team that has been on a roll since the new year, the fourth-seeded Sahuaro Cougars may not have even thought they would reach Thursday’s Arizona Class 4A boys basketball state championship game.

“Yes, I’m surprised,” said sophomore guard Cisco Llamas, whose two free throws with 9.4 seconds left helped clinch Monday's semifinal. “At the beginning, I knew we were good, but I didn’t know we could make it this far. I’m proud of my team, I’m proud of my coaches.”

Llamas’ Cougars surprised top seed American Leadership Academy-Gilbert North 55-51 on Monday to advance to face No. 3 Glendale Deer Valley on Thursday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the state title game.

Deer Valley beat No. 2 Gilbert Mesquite 51-48 on Tuesday as both road teams survived the penultimate round.

“I would say, state championship game may be a little bit of a surprise,” Sahuaro coach Jim Henry said. “We knew we were good, but a lot of things got to go your way to get to this point and it’s exciting stuff. We are ready to be playing in the last game of the season. It’s fun.”

It will be Sahuaro’s first trip to the championship game since legendary coach Dick McConnell took the Cougars to the 4A title in 2001. 

Thursday’s game is also a rematch of the Open Division first round as Deer Valley edged Sahuaro 69-66 in overtime as the 16 and 17 seeds. Deer Valley lost to No. 1 Gilbert Perry in the round of 16 to drop to a No. 3 seed in the 4A tournament. Sahuaro ended up a No. 4 in the 4A bracket after that loss to Deer Valley.

But to reach that final game, Sahuaro (24-4) had to beat a bigger opponent that, despite its size, loves to shoot the 3. ALA-Gilbert North (23-6) also came in 14-1 since New Year’s Day, the only loss coming to Goodyear Millennium in the Open Division round of 16, which dropped the Eagles to the 4A tournament. Millennium is in the Open Division semifinals.

Against Sahuaro, ALA-Gilbert North hit seven 3s on its way to a 29-25 halftime lead, then hit two more to start the third quarter and had a 35-27 advantage with 5:37 left in the third.

“We started seeing them shoot outside more so we had our big man (Jamal Ali) start closing out, so they wouldn’t get as many open 3s,” Llamas said. “They can shoot, they can knock down their shots.”

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Henry said the Cougars adjusted at halftime, showing 2-3 and 1-3-1 zone defenses and trapping to try and defend against the shots beyond the arc.

“Part of it was we changed some things up, we have prided ourselves on defense all season, kind of threw a lot of different things at them,” Henry said. “My guys were so dialed in with the game plan defensively today. We made so few mistakes on defense. They are going to make some shots, they are a good team. But when it came to crunch time and having to make a play, these guys just did it tonight. It was beautiful.”

Sahuaro did just that. Ali’s only 3-pointer of the night cut the lead to 47-45 with 5:37 to play. Llamas’ steal led to two free throws to tie the game with 4:12 left. The Cougars forced the Eagles into a shot clock violation to get the ball with 1:49 remaining down two. An Ali putback tied it at 49 with 1:34 left. Another stop and Nick Ponds (13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists) hit a runner with 1:01 left to put Sahuaro ahead for good. 

“We knocked down our shots,” Llamas said. “We locked down their offense, we just played defense. We battled and we wanted it more at the end of the day.”

Another turnover by ALA-Gilbert North gave Sahuaro the ball, and Ayumu Lara hit two free throws with 26.9 seconds left. The Eagles got those back, but Llamas (12 points, seven assists) drew a foul with 9.4 seconds remaining and hit his two for the final margin. 

“Tonight’s game I think sort of symbolized who we are,” Henry said. “Because they never quit, they never gave up, they fought every minute, every second out there.”

The Cougars held ALA-Gilbert North’s leading scorer Dylan Novak to 10 points, less than half his average.

In just its second year at the 4A level, ALA-Gilbert North has been a top seed twice. It was a No. 1 seed last year but was upset in the quarterfinals by Deer Valley, the eventual state runner-up. The Eagles were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 3A tournament two years ago.