61st EA Boys Holiday Basketball Tournament Day 2 update
By Jon Johnson
THATCHER – It was a battle to the bitter end between Pima and Tanque Verde at EAC’s Guitteau Gymnasium on Friday night to see who would advance to the 61st annual EA Boys Holiday Basketball Tournament championship game. The Riders withheld a late surge by the Hawks to prevail 46-44 and will face Morenci for the championship. The Wildcats defeated Thatcher 54-45 to advance. The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. at Guitteau Gymnasium and will be livestreamed on EAC’s YouTube channel.
Pima started off its day with a 59-30 win over Apache Junction to move into the semifinal.
Morenci survived a close contest with Fort Thomas, 60-59, to advance to its game against Thatcher.
The Apaches also fell to (Tucson) Empire in a heartbreaker, 71-72, for their second 1-point loss of the day.
The Eagles defeated (Tucson) Empire earlier in the day 59-44 and are now in the consolation third-place game against Tanque Verde, starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Guitteau Gymnasium
Safford fell to Tanque Verde earlier in the day, 42-61, but bounced back to hold on against Apache Junction for the 76-73 victory.
Safford will face (Tucson) Empire in Game 11, starting at 1 p.m. at EAC.
In other Day-2 tournament scores, St. David defeated Hayden 52-45, Pueblo defeated Hayden 63-57, and St. Johns beat St. David 67-47.
Pima 46 Tanque Verde 44
Preston Russell flexed hard against the big Tanque Verde frontcourt and finished with a game-high 17 points. Russell was a consistent threat down low and hit at least two buckets in three out of four quarters. But after the first quarter of play, it was anyone’s game, with Pima up 15-14.
Points were hard to come by in the second quarter, with no team scoring for the first three minutes of game time.
Rich Knott led the Hawks in scoring with 14 points and had 8 in the first half.
When the dust cleared, the teams stood deadlocked at 22-22 at the halftime break.
Russell’s partner in the inside/outside game was floor leader Keegan Corona, who hit back-to-back drives to bring Pima within a point late in the third.
The Roughriders were down to the Hawks 26-31 with about 1:45 left in the third quarter when Corona slashed to the lane and hit the layup. Then, after a Hawks’ miss, Corona received the ball on an outlet pass and took it coast-to-coast to bring Pima within 1, 30-31. After Charlie Richardson got the rebound put back, Pima took a 32-31 lead into the final quarter of play.
Tanque Verde’s Rocco Haggard (11 points) led the charge back against Pima in the fourth. With one minute left on the clock and Pima up 44-37, the Riders turned it over, and the Hawks found Haggard in the corner for a 3-pointer. Another turnover resulted in a score by Philip Knott, and all of a sudden, it was a 2-point game, 44-42, with 32 seconds left to play.
But Keegan Corona and Joel Mattice both hit 1/2 free throws to secure the victory, and a Haggard score in the waning seconds brought the final to 46-44, with Pima advancing.
Rich Knott led the scoring for Tanque Verde with 14 points, followed by Haggard with 11,
Enzo Castillo with 9, Philip Knott with 7, and Jacob Dickens with 3 points.
Russell led the scoring for Pima with 17 points, followed by Corona with 13, Charlie Richardson with 6, Rhett Hughes hit a big 3-pointer early on and finished with 4 points, Isaac Thompson’s 3-pointer was huge as his only points, Daxton McRae got a bucket for 2 points, and Joel Mattice knocked down a free throw for one point.
