Surging Sabino wins 7th straight
by Ken Brazzle on Dec. 31, 2008, under Sports
Seton Catholic's Kayla Bustos (15) isguarded by Etobicoke Collegiate Institute's Natasha Amo (right) during Tuesday's game at the Northwest Desert Classic at Mountain View High School.
Senior forward John Lohmeier senses something different about the Sabino High School boys basketball team.
“I can’t even describe it,” Lohmeier said. “It’s totally different.”
On thing that’s different is that the Sabercats are winning. Sabino extended its streak to seven victories by defeating host Mountain View 60-56 in the finals of the Northwest Desert Classic on Tuesday night.
“I think we’re getting on a roll,” Lohmeier said.
Sabino (10-4) had a 3-4 start before turning its season around.
“We playing a lot better,” Sabino coach Tim Batten said. “We are playing together better. Guys are starting to understand the system. We still have too many ups and downs, but we seem to bounce back a lot better than we did earlier in the year.”
What looked to be a cakewalk at one time for Sabino against the Mountain Lions became a close ballgame.
Sabino held a 20-point lead in the third quarter before Mountain View mounted a comeback.
“That seems to be a trend for us,” Lohmeier said. “We came out hard in the second half and we pushed it to 20. It seems like every game we start to lose it. I was like, ‘We’ve come this far let’s not blow it.’ ”
After Sabino went ahead 41-21, Mountain View outscored the Sabercats 14-1 to pull within seven at the end of the third quarter.
“Luckily, we had such a big lead that it didn’t kill us,” Lohmeier said.
Lohmeier was the only Sabino player in double figures with 19 points. Mountain View got a game- high 24 points from Aaron Anderson.
“We are still making a lot of mistakes,” said Mountain View assistant coach Mike Dyer. “We had a chance to win.
“I don’t want to see (Sabino’s) percentage. I bet they shot 60 percentage from the field.
“I don’t remember them missing a 3. As many turnovers as we made, if we had made three less turnovers, maybe we would’ve had a chance to win.”
Girls basketball
Sahuaro and Phoenix South Mountain will play for the Flowing Wells Holiday Shoot-Out championship at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Sahuaro advanced after rallying past Palo Verde 44-42 on Tuesday in the semifinals.
Ashley Walls led the Cougars with 15 points as Sahuaro outscored the Titans 18-12 in the final quarter.
Sahuaro trailed 30-26 after the third quarter despite scoring only two points in the period.
Cindy Miranda scored 13 points for Palo Verde, which will play Sahuarita for third place at noon Wednesday.
Sahuarita lost to South Mountain 66-27 in the semifinals.
• Chandler Seton Catholic broke out of the gate early and never looked back in defeating Etobicoke (Ontario) 52-39 in the championship game of the Northwest Desert Classic.
Seton outscored Etobicoke 14-4 in the first quarter. Etobicoke was unable to recover from the poor start.
Theresa Wirth, who scored four points in the first quarter, led Seton with 12 points.
Emily Joslin topped Etobicoke with 10 points.
KEN BRAZZLE
kbrazzle@tucsoncitizen.com (kbrazzle@tucsoncitizen.com)
