Cinderella McClintock’s run continues in Open Division
The McClintock High girls basketball team continued its impressive run through the Open Division playoff bracket, again knocking off a higherseeded team Thursday to advance to next week’s quarterfinals.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association introduced a 32-team Open Division playoff bracket for both girls and boys basketball this season, selecting top-rated teams from the 4A through 6A conferences. Teams that lost in the opening two rounds will be placed back into their respective conference playoff brackets, which get underway next week.
The eight remaining teams will have a chance to establish themselves as the best of the best among the state’s girls high school teams.
Here’s a look at the quarterfinal games, along with team seedings, which take place Feb. 17, at 7 p.m., at the higher seed’s school:
No. 8 Tucson Salpointe Catholic at No. 1 Desert Vista
Salpointe, the defending 4A champion, is coming off an impressive 4945 win over No. 9 Hamilton (6A) to advance to the quarters.
Salpointe is one of those teams that fears nobody, but it will have its hands full next week when it makes the trek up I-10 to Ahwatukee to face the Thunder (6A), which is undefeated and has been the top-ranked team in 6A all season. Desert Vista defeated No 17-seed Valley Vista 77-64 on Thursday. The Monsoon defeated Desert Vista in last year’s 6A championship game. Desert Vista has scored 90 or more points seven times this season, including its first-round win over No. 32-seed Tucson Flowing Wells.
No 2 Perry at No. 7 Pinnacle
The Pioneers (6A) have advanced after defeating Nogales (5A) and Flagstaff (4A), but things will get considerably tougher against the Pumas, who were undefeated (16-0) in 6A Conference play this season.
Perry downed Pinnacle on Nov. 17, 5748, but the Pumas have looked stronger as the season progressed. Their only losses came against highly regarded out-of-state teams. Perry cruised to comfortable wins in the first two rounds of the Open playoffs over Williams Field and Betty H. Fairfax and appears to be on a collision course with Desert Vista, which they did not face in the regular season.
No. 6 Millennium Catholic
at No. 3 Seton
Seton may be a 4A school, but they’re a team – and a program – that can compete with anyone. Coming into the tournament as the top-ranked team in 4A (17-1), they face the defending 5A champion Millennium, which was the No. 1ranked team in 5A heading into the tournament. Seton knocked off No. 14 Mesa in the second round Thursday, 53-42, while Millennium topped Sandra Day O’Connor, 58-52. Next Thursday’s match could be the most competitive among the four quarterfinal games.
No. 21 McClintock at No. 4 Xavier Prep
The Chargers followed up their opening round win over 12-seed Canyon View with a 69-54 win over No. 5 Mesquite. Can McClintock advance to the final four and continue a potential Cinderella story? Going 16-2 overall and 13-2 in 5A Conference play, the Chargers finished ranked No. 8 in the conference. So they’re no slouch. But Xavier (10-3 conference, 12-3 overall) is consistently a top 6A program, finshing ranked No. 3 in the conference behind Desert Vista and Perry, the only two teams to beat the Gators this season (Perry twice, including a one-point game).