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Marana (7-6) and Ironwood Ridge (4-8) will have a very difficult time qualifying for the state basketball tournament even with the expanded 24-team format put in place this year.

The top eight teams in each section get a bid to sectionals and then the top four from each of the three sectionals move on to the state tournament. The remaining 12 bids are awarded based on power points.

Marana would have to win their remaining four games and hope for a major collapse from about six teams ahead of them. The Nighthawks, unfortunately, are too far out at this point.

Marana will need a healthy team if they are going to make their final run but that is now in question with another ankle injury suffered by standout Jamee Swan.

Swan reinjured her left ankle during Marana’s 44-36 victory over Ironwood Ridge Friday night. Swan scored 10 points and pulled down nine rebounds before her injury with 7:40 left in the third period.

All of Swan’s points came from offensive rebounds and she blocked two shots at the other end and changed the minds of others who normally would have taken what appeared open shots. She, as members of the Ironwood Ridge told her after the game, “was killing them.”

Swan landed awkwardly on the tip of her toes and rolled her ankle while her defenders were attempting to get some sort of position behind her and she fell to the floor. An athletic trainer worked on her in another room while the game continued.

“I’m very proud of how my team responded,” said head coach and mother to Jamee, Diane Swan. “They did not give up and they fought on as a team.”

Losing Swan was a big blow to the team but they responded to almost every attempt from Ironwood Ridge to cut into their lead.

Marana was up 26-16 when Swan went down and Casey Wortley hit two three-point shots in a row but Marana responded with baskets by Shalise Borden and Kortnee Day to give Marana a 30-22 lead after three periods.

Meaghan Coffield scored three quick points to cut that lead down to 30-24 with 7:16 left in the game and it looked like Ironwood Ridge would mount a comeback at that point but Borden came up big and hit two three-point shots in a row to put Marana back up 36-25.

“I was just trying to make things good for Jamee,” explained Borden. “I didn’t want to let her down.”

Borden had turned back Ironwood Ridge and she did not shoot again but she was OK with that, “As long as my team was playing hard and working as a team I didn’t care if I even touched the ball again,” she said.

And they were.

Diane Swan is very pleased with what she sees in her team this year. They obviously like each other and they have lots of fun.

Swan explains it as the only blessing that could ever come from the sudden death of senior and teammate Veronica Meade last September. “If you watch them, you will see how well they act with each other,” said Swan.

“I am very, very proud of how they responded to that tragedy and they are determined to play as a team for her.”

Ironwood Ridge could not get any closer than eight points the rest of the way despite seven points scored by Coffield in the last period. Day made two layups at the end and Marana went on to win 44-36.

Swan and Day scored 10 each for Marana, Borden added 8, Mally McGarity scored 7, Alyssa Ruiz scored 5 and Courtney Hade scored 2.

Kristen Dohm and Coffield scored 7 to lead Ironwood Ridge, Wortley scored 6, Heidi Benjamin and Trenna Olson scored 5 each, Paige Moffett scored 4 and Sarah O’Keefe added 2.

Ironwood Ridge hosts Mountain View (8-4) on Tuesday and Marana hosts Sunnyside (3-9).

Update on Jamee Swan’s status coming soon she was taken to an emergency room for x-rays following the game. Swan met with members of Ironwood Ridge and told them not to worry about it because it was “just basketball” and she complimented them on their defense.  Swan signed with Colorado and will watch them play Arizona this weekend.

Members of the Marana basketball team will take part in Palo Verde’s lap-a-thon and fun run Saturday morning from 9-11 am to raise money for the Susan G. Komen foundation.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 10:25 pm 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.