There are plenty of changes with the Sabino boys basketball team this year.

The Sabercats were 14-7 two thirds into their season last year before dropping 7 of their next 8 games including a first-round loss in the state championship where they were forced to play eventual state champion McClintock due to their low 15 seed.

Sabino has earned no better than a 14 seed over the last three seasons and completely missed the post season in 2007.

Their low finishes weren’t from a lack of solid players. Matt Korcheck averaged over 18 points a game for the Sabercats in his senior year.

He signed with UTEP but was released from his scholarship when Tim Floyd was hired to coach the Miners. Floyd eventually signed Pueblo star Michael Perez. Korcheck is now playing for Cochise College and is probably one of the best junior college players in Arizona.

Throw in solid play from fellow seniors Joey Cantando and Kyle Hadinger along with juniors Dimitri Chonis, Anthony Neals, Marshall Jestings, Michael Ross, Sean Beebe, Kevin Lohmeier and Blaise Babicke and the team was set.

New head coach Gary Malis has 10 seniors on his roster with Chonis leading the way. Malis is no stranger to high-level play, having coached club ball with much success.

The Sabercats started out 5-6 this year but they have reeled off five straight wins to win the Northwest Desert Classic over Desert Edge of Goodyear 61-57.

Unfortunately, the five victories along with two wins earned in the Salpointe Tip-Off do not count towards their power ranking. But Malis is a very capable coach with a very strong team. There are enough wins left in their season to get them to the post season – they just have to get the job done.

Chonis earned Tournament MVP honors after the victory over Desert Edge due to his outstanding play over the week. He scored 10 points in the championship but Neals poured in 21 points to lead the team.

Jestings added 13, Ross had 6, Babicke and Beebe both had 4 and Lohmeier 3 and the Sabercats needed almost all of them to hold off Desert Edge despite building 43-19 lead going into the fourth quarter.

An incredible 56 points was scored in the last period with Desert Edge scoring 38. That’s almost 5 points a minute when most teams struggle to score 7 points in a whole quarter.

Sabino won the game at the line where they sank 20-24 free throws.

Here is an excellent video posted by Sabino boosters of Chonis from the game: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=178024175552730&oid=169802307957&comments&ref=mf

Shane Burton of Cienega joined Chonis on the All-Tournament team along with Eric Varela of Flowing Wells, Dominick Balsino of Mountain View, Dior Ford of Sahuaro, Juan Zazueta of Westwood, Jalen Richard of Poston Butte, Roger Hamel of La Mirada, JT Estrada of Desert Edge and Jeremy Courtney of Pusch Ridge.

I was forced to leave the boys game early due to a family obligation so I give a big thanks to the Sabino fans who kept me up to date.

There was similar fourth quarter drama in the girls championship where Catalina Foothills saw their 40-30 lead over Desert Edge dwindle to 40-39 with 2:21 left in the game.

Tournament MVP Shakayla McEaddy had 18 points going into the last quarter but Desert Edge star Gabby Washington had 17 points to keep her team in it.

Washington scored the first 9 points in the last period. Foothills center Alexa Arndt fouled out during Washington’s run and McEaddy rested on the bench for a couple of minutes.

Desert Edge had a chance to take the lead with 1:54 left but they failed to get the ball in bounds and were whistled for a 5-second violation. This is when McEaddy reasserted herself in the game to show which number 23 was going to win this game as both Washington and McEaddy wear that number.

McEaddy drove and drew several defenders so she dumped the ball off to reserve center Kyle Campbell for an easy bucket underneath. McEaddy rebounded a Washington miss and came down and scored 20 seconds later and then rebounded another Washington miss with 47.4 seconds left.

Desert Edge was down 44-39 and took a 3-point shot. Noelle Devlin provided the defensive play of the game by sending the shot against the gym wall with 19.9 seconds left.

Desert Edge would get fouled later and cut the lead to 44-40 but Washington fouled out trying to stop McEaddy with 6.3 seconds left. McEaddy sank her free throws to seal the game and the MVP honors.

McEaddy Finished with 20 points and Erin Peterson added 9 while Washington lead all scorers with 24.

McEaddy, Peterson and Washington were named to the All-Tournament team along with Sara Boice of Desert Christian, Ale Tapia of CDO, Kelsie Bingham of Mountain View, Gabby Courtney of Pusch Ridge, Brooke Violette of Desert Ridge and Mya Perrow-Donovan and Brooke Seavitt of Ironwood Ridge.

McEaddy has become one of the dominate players in Southern Arizona. It was only a matter of time as her cousin is none other than Shakir Smith of Tucson. The two, along with McEaddy’s younger brother Jalen, have grown up playing with and against each other. Jalen will be a freshman next year at Foothills and might have an immediate impact for the Falcons.

McEaddy has begun the transition from inside to outside play in preparation for the next level and it appears to be working for Peter Fajardo and his undefeated Foothills team (14-0).

Ironwood Ridge beat Mountain View 49-18 in the 3rd place game and lead from the beginning thanks to Seavitt’s 14 points and Perrow-Donovan’s 10. Paige Moffett added 9 and Sarah O’Keefe put in 8 for the Nighthawks.

Tiffany Andrade and Czarina Walker each had 4 points for Mountain View.

One of the developing stars for Ironwood Ridge is Angelica Miller. Her defensive play is apparent in Ridge’s scheme.

College scouts were in the stands for this game as both Seavitt and Perrow-Donovan are now on the recruiting radar.

The boys 3rd place game featured Cienega against La Mirada, California.

Cienega began the season going 0-6 and 1-10 in their first 11 games but playing for third place in the Classic has shown reason to believe the team may yet find their way.

Cienega made 10 3-pointers in the game including 6 in the first half. Andrew Lucero scored 14 points in the game with 11 of those points coming in the second quarter where he sank threes to tie the game at 17-17, to put the team up 24-21 and then up again 31-28.

He would not score again however and the game would remain close up to the end where the Bobcats nursed a 60-57 lead with 7 seconds left in the game when disaster hit.

Cienega took a questionable 3-point shot with a minute left with the 3-point lead but got the ball back and then missed 2 free throws in the final seconds.

La Mirada got the ball back and took a 3-point shot with 7 seconds left in regulation. The shot was off the mark but Cienega committed a foul on the shooter. All three free throws went in to send the game to overtime.

La Mirada outscored Cienega 10-3 in overtime for the win.

Javier Olono lead Cienega with 16 points, Lucero had the 14, Shane Burton added 13 and Edgar Poe put in 8. Roger Hamel lead all scorers with 24 points for La Mirada.

Cienega plays at Sabino on January 4.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 31st, 2010 at 9:02 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.