Desert Vista wins 5A-I boys title
In the first minute of the second half Friday night, with their team leading Phoenix St. Mary's by 12 points, Phoenix Desert Vista students began chanting, "Where is Jerryd Bayless?"
He was there, but the now University of Arizona star could only watch his former team get taken apart inside, outside, at both ends of the Jobing.com Arena court, as Desert Vista captured its first Class 5A Division I boys basketball championship with a 63-50 victory.
Last year, Jerryd Bayless had 37 points in St. Mary's 72-69 victory against Desert Vista in the state semifinals.
It was the second year in a row Desert Vista's run ended a game short.
Michael Proctor had a tooth knocked out in that game.
This year, Proctor's teeth remained in tact and he carried the gold ball off the court with a smile.
"We said this was going to be our hardest game, because those guys have been there in the past," said Proctor, a senior forward, who had 16 points.
Desert Vista was the constant aggressors, cutting off passing lanes, crashing the boards and halting a fourth-quarter St. Mary's threat.
After Brandon Jenkins hit a 3 and George Mathews scored inside to bring St. Mary's to within 51-44 with 3:16 left, Proctor drove hard to the basket and was fouled as he scored. He converted the three-point play. After a steal by Marcus Lever, he sank two foul shots. A layup and steal by Josh Lowery, and Desert Vista (26-5) had a 58-44 lead with 1:48 left. Lowery (21 points), Lever and Proctor combined for 49 points.
The production of Lever and Lowery answered critics about Desert Vista's questionable backourt entering the season.
"All year we heard our backcourt wasn't that good," said coach Doug Harris, who has gotten Desert Vista to the Final Four in four of his five seasons. "But they stepped up and showed it tonight."
This was the third time Desert Vista had reached the final since 2003.
"To finally get over that hump, it's unbelievable," Harris said.
For St. Mary's (21-11), it was the third time in four years it lost in the final.
St. Mary's best outside threat, senior James Hollins, who made the two technical foul shots and the 3-pointer that brought St. Mary's back from a four-point deficit in the final 16.3 seconds Friday night to beat Chandler Hamilton, won the 3-point shooting contest during halftime of the Class 5A-I girls final before Friday's boys championship game.
But he didn't heat up in the game until his team got down 47-30 in the final two minutes of the third quarter. Hollins, who had a team-high 11 points, hit two 3-pointers in less than a minute to cut the deficit to 11 points entering the final eight minutes.
"Desert Vista had a lot of energy," St. Mary's coach David Lopez said.
Especially during a a devastating 21-6 second quarter.
Reserve junior forward Dan Tilleman, whose father Karl played on the Canadian national team against Michael Jordan in the Olympics, nailed two 3-pointers in less than two minutes in the period that gave Desert Vista a double-digit lead.
St. Mary's was held scoreless in the first five minutes of the second period.
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