Special to West Valley Preps

GILBERT - A young Valley Vista team was locked in a high-pressure, road battle with a nearly-as-young Perry squad on Friday in the quarterfinals of the 6A Girls State Basketball Tournament at Perry High School.

The two-time defending state champion Monsoon were clinging to a one-point lead with four minutes left before freshman guard Jennah Isai hit back-to-back 3-pointers to help kick-start a 23-7 run to end the game.

No. 6 seed Valley Vista (25-4 overall, 16-2 regular season) pulled away for an 80-63 win.

“We’re growing up through the process and they are learning and learning about each other,” Monsoon coach Rachel Matakas said after watching her young team move to within one win of matching the most wins in school history. “We came out with a little bit of nerves, which is usual, but overall, our kids played hard and they did what they had to do.”

Valley Vista will next play second-seeded Phoenix Xavier Prep (25-4, 16-2) at 3 p.m. Thursday in the 6A semifinals at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.

Technically, it is a rematch of last season's state title game. But the Monsoon graduated four senior starers and now count on Isai and fellow freshman Saniyah Neverson.

Both teams started just one senior each and the young playmakers for both squads went back and forth for three and a half quarters before Isai, who was on the bench for most of the game due to foul trouble, took over in the final four minutes.

After hitting the back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Monsoon a 63-56 lead with 2:41 left, Isai added 11 free throws to score 17 of her team-high 24 points in that deciding run.

“We were playing a really soft schedule, so she didn’t see this kind of defense,” Matakas said of Isai, who missed almost eight weeks early in the season with an injury. “She’s got to learn body control. Perry did a great job on the defense, scheming and game-planning. But in that fourth quarter, that’s how Jenna plays, all the time.”

After her team didn’t make a field goal in the opening period, sophomore Marisa Davis came up with a critical performance during a second quarter that saw the Monsoon erase a nine-point deficit. Davis scored 13 of her 23 points in the second quarter, with the Monsoon outscoring the Pumas 28-11 to take a 35-27 lead into halftime.

The two teams played even in the third quarter, with the Monsoon making a late 8-2 run thanks to six points from sophomore guard Alanis Delgado, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send her team into the fourth quarter with a 54-47 lead.

Perry (18-9, 14-4), making its first appearance in the 6A quarterfinals in school history, was led by sophomores Madison Conner (27 points) and Tatyanna Clayburne (20 points).

Valley Vista junior guard Sophie Martinez chipped in with 12 points.

The Valley Vista girls basketball team celebrates its 6A quarterfinal win against Perry at Perry High School in Gilbert Feb. 15. [Elliott Glick/Special to West Valley Preps][/caption]