By Richard Smith
Twitter: @rsmithYWV

PHOENIX - Gary Rath could not ask for more from his Sunrise Mountain team Wednesday night, but he would have loved three more points.

Sunnyslope was the one rival in the brutal Northwest Region that the Mustangs struggled with the most in the regular season, losing the two meetings by 19 and 27 points, respectively. Yet the Sunrise Mountain led its nemisis by one with a minute left in the Feb. 19 5A first round playoff game.

That's when previously scoreless senior wing Xzavier Lino stepped up for the home team. His only two baskets of the night, both three-point shots in the final 45 seconds, saved #6 Sunnyslope (22-5).

Lino's first trey gave the perennial 5A power a 51-49 lead, but Mustangs sophomore guard Rafe Canale tied it by sinking both ends of a pressure-packed 1-and-1 with 20.8 left. Lino answered with the dagger, a corner three at 2.1 seconds set up by sophomore Oakland Fort's penetration, and the Vikings won 54-52.

"It's very special because this his first game back. He didn't play them (Feb. 11) because he is battling an injury. He was little rusty in the first half. But he hit two big ones when it mattered," Sunnyslope coach Ray Portela said.

Sunrise Mountain (17-9), the #11 seed, nearly set up a game-tying shot after moving the ball to halfcourt and calling time with 1.2 seconds remaining. The Vikings fouled Canale again, this time before the inbound pass.

But in the officials' judgment this was not an intentional foul, so the visitors did not get two shots plus the ball. Canale made the front end and missed the second shot intentionally, but 6-10 junior Carson Basham snagged the rebound to finish it.

"It their judgment on whether it was intentional. It's smart to make us shoot two," Rath said.

From the start of this game his team showed they would not be an early-round walkover. Sunrise Mountain played a variant of a zone most of the night to deal with Basham and 6-8 junior Grady Lewis inside.

Sunnyslope responded with four treys in the first quarter for an 18-12 lead. Senior Paul Hayden sank three more from distance in the second quarter and his 17 points powered a 33-24 Vikinga halftime advantage.

But the Mustangs tweaked their zone in the second half, holding Hayden scoreless.

"It's playoff time and everybody's going to bring their best. Gary did a really good job of switching defenses, which kind of confused us. We never really got settled," Portela said. "We didn't get as much as we usually do from our bigs. Kudos to them It was a great plan."

Meanwhile, after senior forward Tanner Mayer and junior forward Colin Carey combined for 22 or the 24 first-half points, the visitors picked up points from more sources during their comeback.

Senior guard Brandon Taylor started the third quarter with a three that sparked an 8-0 run. Mayer's offensive rebound and reverse layup tied the game at 38 with under three minutes left in the third - the first deadlock since 6-6.

Basham grabbed two offensive boards for putbacks to rebuild the lead to 44-38 late in the period. But Rath's team would not go away as two buckets by Taylor and one by Mayer tied it at 44 early in the fourth.

"We really struggled in our two games against them. Tonight, we made enough plays to win. The kid hit a big shot and I called a bad time out on a (mid-fourth quarter) three)," Rath said. "I'm so proud of our kids. They stepped up and we just needed one more stop. We got them to take a shot with a hand up, and it went in."

Lewis, Sunnyslope's second-leading scorer with 12, scored four straight. But then junior forward Jaydn Brown came alive with a three and a layup to give the upstarts their fleeting late lead.

Lino hit his two big shots after missing his previous three attempts. Basham finished with 11 points and 14 boards.

Sunnyslope moves on to play #3 Gilbert (23-5) in a quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Friday.

"We've played all these guys. We've seen Gilbert, Ironwood, Sunrise and Millennium. It's just a matter of us executing. We didn't play our best game today and they played so well. I think they had only one turnover in the first half," Portela said.

Taylor and fellow seniors Eddie Ekpoh, Aiden Blaylock and Braden Rath were the class that had to rebuild the program after Elijah Thomas led Sunrise Mountain to the Division II Final Four in 2016 then graduated and moved on to St. Mary's (Calif.).

Mayer has been the heart of the 2020 class and was again in the final game in purple and gold. He finished with 20 points and seven rebounds on a typical mix of fundamentally sound post play and three baskets from long range.

"This senior group has always done whatever I asked," Rath said. "Tanner is such a leader for us. He battled his rear end off against 6-8 and 6-10 guys inside. It's been fun to coach him because he shows our guys how we're supposed to act."

Carey was the second big scoring threat, as usual, with 13 points.

His return and the late play of Brown and Canale give the Mustangs reason to think this run isn't over.

"I hope the underclassmen realize what it takes and how hard you ahve to play. That's the hardest we've played all year. It stinks because you come up short. But that's a really good team we played," Rath said.

Richard Smith
Associate Editor | Surprise & West Valley Preps
@rsmithYWV

rsmith@iniusa.org

Richard Smith has been with Independent Newsmedia since 2016, and worked at a Sun City-based news outfit covering the Northwest Valley for 22 consecutive years.

An NAU alum and lifelong Arizona resident, Richard began as a copy editor and page designer at Surprise Today and the Daily News-Sun, then rekindled his love of sports writing by taking the reins on West Valley Preps in 2008.

For most of the mid-2010s he was the Surprise editor and West Valley Preps reporter. Now he’s the West Valley Preps Editor and Surprise Associate Editor.

As COVID restrictions slowly lift, Richard is cautiously optimistic he will visit book stores, football fields and gyms again this fall.