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The regular season is over and the final day changed power points, provided for some upsets and burst a few playoff bubbles.

The Desert Christian girls started Friday off on top of the Division IV/Section II rankings with one home game remaining but an upset loss dropped them one spot and a slightly more difficult road at sectionals.

Desert Christian and St. Gregory were already a lock for sectionals but a rivalry game is still a rivalry game no matter what the circumstance.

Sara Boice and Madison Peddy combined for 11 points in the first quarter and they gave Desert Christian a comfortable 16-12 lead after the first period and that lead was increased to 23-16 at the half.

St. Gregory went on a 12-5 run in the third quarter to tie the game up at 28-28 with 3:28 left. Rachel Wilson poured in 8 of her game-high 14 points in the quarter after finally taking advantage of her height under the basket and Desert Christian could not respond.

Both teams struggled from the free throw line with St. Gregory shooting 12 for 28 and Desert Christian making only 10 of 29 but the misses appeared to hurt Desert Christian more because they suddenly found themselves trying to catch St. Gregory.

St. Gregory built a 39-32 lead with 6:03 left in the game but a couple of free throws from Boice and three points from Kalyn Kovacs brought the Eagles back to 39-37 with 1:28 left but then came Alex Berman.

Berman was the only player on the floor who did not fall victim to free throw shooting woes and she made 6 of 7 for St. Gregory down the final minute to keep Desert Christian at bay and led her team to their eventual 48-39 victory.

“Even though we qualified for state I told myself I had to make my free throws,” explained Berman after watching so many misses in the game.

“It feels amazing to come in and beat our rivals on senior night in front of their fans,” she added.

The loss dropped Desert Christian to the second spot at sectional where they will play San Miguel in the first round at Desert View next Tuesday night. San Miguel is the only other loss for the Eagles this season.

St. Gregory actually fell a spot themselves according to the power point list. They have to play a tough Duncan team in the first round. Duncan vaulted past St. Gregory because they also scored a huge upset by beating D-III power Safford in a low-scoring (27-24) game at home.

Green Fields went undefeated at 18-0 and earned the top seed. They will have a rematch against Ft. Thomas, a team they beat at the MLK Classic in January. The Griffins have the mythical regular season sectional title to go with their mascot.

Wilson scored 14 for St. Gregory and Berman added 10. Alex Valencia and Amanda Gamez scored 7 each.

Peddy led Desert Christian with 12, Boice had 11, Kristen Cray added 10 and Kovacs scored 6.

The Desert Christian boys narrowly avoided the same fate by turning back St. Gregory 44-40 in the night cap.

Both teams remained even with St. Gregory taking a 20-19 lead at halftime. Desert Christian had actually taken a 17-11 lead with 4:41 left in the second quarter but that lead was quickly erased and surpassed thanks to five points from Jasim El-Ali and two from Dominic Valencia.

Ryan Barents scored six of his 12 points in the third quarter and the Eagles led 29-28 after three periods but El-Ali was fouled while shooting a three-pointer and he made all three free throws to help St. Gregory take a 31-29 lead with 6:40 left in the game.

Matt Fox hit a three-pointer seconds later to give St. Gregory a 34-29 lead and it looked like the upset was on but Desert Christian made four free throws and a bucket to retake the lead, 35-34, with 3:27 left.

Ben Brandon made the shot of the game when he hit a three-pointer with 1:24 left to give Desert Christian a 38-35 lead. It was a shot that St. Gregory could not recover from and Desert Christian went on for the win.

Barents scored 12, Myles Mayfield added 11, Brandon scored 9 and Michael Shew scored 8 for Desert Christian.

El-Ali scored a game-high 17 and Valencia added 13 for St. Gregory.

Desert Christian retained their top seed and will play St. David at Cienega on Tuesday night. St. Gregory will play Ray earlier in the day. The Tohono O’Odham boys qualified for sectionals.

OTHER ACTION

The Sahuaro boys won their game against Tanque Verde Friday night but it was not enough to put them in the top eight in their section.

Salpointe, Nogales, Foothills and Douglas all lost Friday night but none of the losses made room for Sahuaro.

Foothills and Douglas are both suffering a three-game losing streak entering sectionals.

Cienega and Rincon won their games but they will now wait until sectionals are over to see where they stand in D-I action.

The Cienega girls lost to Douglas again and the loss almost knocked them out of sectionals. They will now have to play the top seed next Tuesday night in Gilbert.

The Nogales girls suffered a bad loss to 2-16 Mesa and it knocked them out of sectionals and out of the playoffs. Sabino upset Mountain View and the loss knocked Mountain view out of sectionals with a chance at state still a possibility.

A perfect example of why one cannot simply say the top 24 teams are going to state is the Bisbee, Empire and Tanque Verde scenario in D-III action. All three are ranked below 24 (Empire is actually 29th) but all three are in the top eight of their section.

If one ore more of those three teams finishes in the top four at sectionals then they will knockout a higher ranked team for the state playoffs.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 4th, 2012 at 1:25 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.