Photos By Jon Johnson and Steve Carter/Gila Herald: Pima boys basketball head coach Cliff Thompson and center Seth Russell have the Pima Roughriders in the 2A Boys State Basketball Championship semifinals. Pima defeated Trivium Prep 52-43 in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
By Jon Johnson
PRESCOTT VALLEY – The No. 2 Pima Roughriders are in the semifinals of the 2A State Boys Basketball Championship playoffs.
The Roughriders got there by defeating No. 15 Veritas Prep 58-38 on Friday, and No. 10 Trivium Prep 52-43 on Saturday.
Pima will next play either No. 6 Arizona Lutheran or No. 3 Rancho Solano Prep in the semifinals at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix on Friday, Feb. 24. The State Championship game will be played Saturday, Feb. 25.
Pima 58 – Veritas Prep 38
The Roughriders jumped out to a 10-2 lead and never looked back as they held the Veritas Prep Falcons to just one field goal on the way to a 13-4 opening-period lead for Pima.
Pima continued its dominance in the second period, and after a Pierce Ashby block, Keegan Corona hit a 3-pointer to give the Roughriders a 21-8 lead. The Riders take on a couple more scores and went into the half up 25-8.
Garrett Curtis led Pima with 14 points, followed by Seth Russell, who had 13 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double.
Pima 52 – Trivium Prep 43
In the quarterfinal, Trivium Prep jumped out on Pima with Kaden Bruggeman hitting back-to-back 3’s on Crimson Knights’ way to an 8-0 lead.
But by the time Garrett Curtis hit his third shot in the period the Roughriders had tied it at 10-10. A couple of free throws gave the Crimson Knights the 12-10 lead at the end of the opening period.
A big 3-pointer by Coy Miller knotted the game up at 15-15 with about 6 minutes left in the half, and another a few minutes later gave Pima its first lead, 22-19.
Seth Russell hit his fourth field goal of the half, and Pima went into the break up 25-21.
It was more Russell down low in the third as he asserted his dominance with 10 more points, but the Falcons kept it close with 4 points from the charity stripe and a 3-pointer at the buzzer as Pima led 39-36 after the third period.
So, Pima went back to its bread and butter and fed Russell down low, and buckled down on their defense. Russell finished with a game-high 20 points.
Grant Ashby got a quick lesson when he made a great defensive play in the fourth with a block but was then given a technical foul for taunting, At that point, Pima had a 9-point lead, 45-36. The tech gave Veritas two free throws and the ball. And on Pima’s next offensive turn Grant was called for an offensive foul and fouled out of the game with 3:36 to play.
Bruggeman then hit on an and-1 play to bring the Falcons within 4 points. However, the referees give and take and Bruggeman fouled out as well with 2:46 left in the game with Pima up 45-41.
Cool as a cucumber senior Garrett Curtis (12 points) then nailed two shots and Coy Miller sunk two free throws as Pima went up 51-43 with just over a minute left to play.
