Senior leadership delivers title as Fountain Hills tops Winslow
This was a time for senior leadership to stand and take control.
That’s what happened when four of the five Fountain Hills starters, all seniors, spoke at halftime and abruptly changed direction. The result was surging second half, a strong fourth quarter and the fourth boys basketball state championship for the school.
With a 55-48 win over Winslow at Gila River Arena on Saturday for the 3A Conference state title, Fountain Hills coach Matt Keating, a 2004 graduate of the school, completed his first season as coach with a state crown. The first Fountain Hills state win was the year after Keating graduated.
“This is a testament to the seniors who worked as hard as they could for this achievement,” Keating said. “I was not here last year, and we finished out of the postseason. When I took over, I told the school administration our goal was to win the state title.”
Facing a pesky, aggressive and inyour-face Winslow defense, Fountain Hills struggled with ball control in the first half. Committing 14 turnovers before intermission, Keating told his players to take better care of the ball and intelligently run the floor.
Coupled with leadership from the seniors, Fountain Hills immediately turned things around.
Down 22-17 at the break, senior Teo Vargas stepped into two Winslow passes and converted those turnovers into two baskets in the first 24 seconds of the third period. On the second drive, he was fouled and converted the threepoint play.
“We had trouble against their pressure defense in the first half,” said Vargas, who had 11 points. “So, we came out to put pressure ourselves, and I jumped into those two passes.”
That gave Fountain Hills a one-point lead at 22-21, and the teams then traded baskets. Not until Winslow had a 41-37 lead with just more than 6 minutes to play did the Fountain Hills offense go into overdrive.
Down the stretch, Joe Wagoner picked up a critical 10 points within the final 5 minutes, and Vargas added an important basket and a pair of free throws.
Plus, the Fountain Hills' defense tightened. Over the final 4 minutes, Winslow managed only three baskets and Fountain Hills outscored Winslow, 14-6, over the final 4:15.
Wagoner led all scorers with 23 points, while Bryce Andrashie added 13. Andrashie and Max Giger each grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds.