Arizona girls state championships: No. 1 St. Mary's leaves no doubt

GLENDALE, Ariz. - It took all of eight minutes for St. Mary's (Phoenix, Ariz.) girls basketball team to erase any doubt.

A. That the Knights would come out slow for a second straight game.

And B. That they are national champions.

St. Mary's raced to a 20-4 lead after one quarter and then pretty much cruised from there to win their second straight Arizona Division I state championship with a 65-40 win over Hamilton (Chandler, Ariz.) Saturday at Jobing.com Arena.

Courtney Ekmark, the sophomore daughter of the team's head coach Curtis Ekmark, drilled four 3-pointers and scored 28 points and Shilpa Tummala added 17 as St. Mary's finished the season 30-0 and all but assuredly itself a mythical national championship.

The Knights have been at the top of the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 rankings since winning the Nike TOC in December and are also at the top of at least two other national ranking services.

Asked if he thought his team was worthy of the top spot and Curtis Ekmark took a giant step backward.

"To be honest, and with all due respect, I don't really care," he said. "All I've ever asked the kids is to give me everything they got every day and to be honest with you they really did. I'm proud of them regardless of what comes out in the rankings.

"Either way, I'm just so proud of them. They can rank us where ever they want. For their sake, I hope they get No. 1 because I think they deserve it."

Hamilton coach Jeff Kain, in his fifth year, said there's no question St. Mary's deserves it. He said he spent much of the TOC watching many of the top-ranked teams.

St. Mary's won those four TOC games against top-tier national teams by 29, 23, 8 and 10 points. It then knocked off an Australian national champion team by 17 and then, in perhaps its most impressive victory, defeated California's top-ranked team Windward by 14.

"Oh yes, they deserve it," Kain said. "They can beat you in so many ways. They have great outside shooting. They can pound it inside. They play great defense and create offense with turnovers. At this level, they're pretty flawless."

Kain was actually quite proud of his 12th-seeded squad (27-7) for playing St. Mary's in check for the final three quarters. He got big games from Kyndall Adams and Lauren Evans, who tallied 16 points apiece.

"We never quit and that's all I could ask," he said. "We played hard right to the final horn."

But it was out of the gate where St. Mary's separated itself. Unlike its semifinal win Thursday when it fell behind 10-2 before romping 61-28 over Dobson, the Knights went long distance to break the game open.

Tummala and Ekmark drilled two 3-pointers apiece and this one was pretty much done. Eckmart hit two more 3-pointers in the second quarter and made 9-for-26 shots overall.

"I just tried to shoot it with confidence," Eckmark said. "I'm lucky to have teammates who find me when I'm open."

Asked about flourishing even with the enormous pressure of being called the nation's best, the younger Eckmark remarked: "Well, it beats the alternative."

Maybe so. But it probably helped to have a low key coach who kept the Knights focused on smaller goals.

"I just told them I wanted to try to be great every day, whether it be practice or a game," he said. "I told them not to worry about the scoreboard or rankings and let's just see what happens. Fortunately it worked out great."

St. Mary's 65, Hamilton 40
HAMILTON (27-7)
Lauren Evans 6-14 4-6 16, Ashlee Moore 1-3 0-0 2, Kyndall Adams 4-11 8-11 16, Cassidee Ranger 0-5 0-0 0, Aliyah Dickson 2-8 2-3 6, Ashley Adson 0-0 0-2 0, Faren Cunningham 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-42 14-22 40.

ST. MARY'S (30-0)
Shilpa Tummala 5-16 3-4 17, Courtney Walton 3-10 1-2 7, Danielle Williams 1-5 2-2 4, Dominique Williams 1-3 0-0 3, Courtney Ekmark 9-26 6-10 28, Chantel Osahor 3-5 0-0 6, Brandee Walton 0-2 0-0 0, Chloe Johnson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-68 12-18 65.

Hamilton   4  15  10  11  -  40
St. Mary's 20 18 16  11  - 65

3-pointers: Hamilton 0-6, St. Mary's 9-24 (Tummala 4, Dom. Williams, Ekmark 4). Rebounds: Hamilton 40 (Cunningham 8), St. Mary's 43 (Osahor 10, Walton 10). Assists: Hamilton 4 (Evans 3), St. Mary's 17 (Asahor 5). Fouled out: none.

DIVISION II: SETON CATHOLIC 52, PEORIA 44

The Seton Catholic (Chandler, Ariz.) girls basketball team won its third straight state title Saturday that few thought was possible.

Not after losing four starters off last year's team.

Not after losing the season opener to Mesquite, then dropping two consecutive Nike Tournament of Champion games by a combined 46 points in late Dec. 

Not after losing a section game just two weeks ago to South Mountain.

But the Sentinels (26-8) pulled it all together when it counted most, recording a clear and decisive 52-44 win over Peoria (31-5) in Division II state championship at Jobing.com Arena.

A pair of 5-foot-11 sophomores, Julia Barcello (15 points, 15 rebounds) and Heather Heild (14 points, 10 rebounds), led the charge with double-doubles and junior point guard Anne Marie Holter was clutch down the stretch with 13 points and five assists.

Holter made 5 of 6 free throws in the final 46 seconds and had seven in the quarter.

It all helped offset a stellar effort from Peoria 6-foot post CeCe Pearl, who had a game-high 24 points. No other Peoria player scored in double figures.

"We just have so much heart and so much motivation to get three straight," Holter said. "Plus we have a great coach (Karen Self) who always gives us a great game plan."

Said Barcello: "This feels awesome. We lost four starters and five seniors from last year. We believed we could do it, but I'm not sure how many others did."

Barcello admitted there were a couple of times doubt crept in.

"But we definitely put in the work to correct things," she said. "Today all that work paid off."

The most doubt crept in after its loss to South Mountain. Seton had won nine straight before that defeat including the previous four by margins of 32, 30, 38 and 21.

That led to complacency, Holter said.

"That loss was good for us," she said. "It brought us back to reality, that we really have to work and get better. I think we did."

Seton did a particularly good job defensively, especially against Peoria's leading scorer Felicia Foster, who was held to nine points on 4-of-17 shooting. Foster came in averaging more than 16 per game.

"Defense was definitely the key for us today," Barcello said. "We really emphasized that heading into the game."

Seton Catholic 52, Peoria 44

SETON CATHOLIC (26-8)
Heather Heild 7-11 0-0 14, Julia Barcello 4-11 7-8 15, Jessica Bailey 1-2 0-1 2, Anne Marie Holter 4-10 5-6 13, Susan Spinner 3-8 0-0 8, Megan Burke 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-43 12-15 52.

PEORIA (31-5)
Taylor Blue 3-5 0-0 6, Felicia Foster 4-17 1-4 9, Alexis Camacho 0-5 1-2 1, CeCe Pearl 11-21 2-2 24, Chayrel Yazzie 0-1 0-0 0, Jada Bourne 1-2 1-2 3, Jennifer Tapp 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 19-51 6-12 44.

Seton Catholic 12 8 15 17 - 52
Peoria 5 13 13 13 - 44

3-point goals: Seton 2-7 (Spinner 2), Peoria 0-5. Rebounds: Seton 31 (Barcello 15, Heild 10), Peoria 30 (Blue 9). Assists: Seton 13 (Holter 5), Peoria 10 (Foster 5). Fouled out: none.

DIVSION III: PAGE 46, WINSLOW 38

In front of more than 8,000 highly enthusiastic fans between schools from the state's Navajo reservation - some five hours away - Page finally broke through, winning its first state finals since 1999 and after placing second four times since 2005. 

Senior guard Malarie Williams was the only player in double figures with 16 points and top seed Page (31-2) broke loose for 22 points in the fourth quarter to win its third state crown overall. The Sand Devils also won it in 1991.

Williams was overcome with emotion while being interviewed on live television.

"For all of us, but especially us seniors, it's been a long journey to say the least," said Williams, who made 6 of 12 field goal tries. "We've let it slip away before but today was our day. It feels amazing."

Page seemed to take control following a pair of outside jumpers by Boka Claw (nine points, four assists), leading a 10-2 run to go up 35-28 late in the third. But Winslow (24-6) fought back with a 5-0 run, capped by a putback from Halle Hayes. But Page scored eight striaght on a layup from Williams, two free throws from Claw, a jumper by Erin West and a putback from Amber Tso.

Winslow, which was led by eight points apiece from Corey Nez and Mattea Begaii, kept battling but never got back within six.

Page 46, Winslow 38
WINSLOW (24-6)
Corey Nez 3-7 2-3 8, Halle Hayes 3-6 6, Marcella Joe2-4 1-3 5, Mattea Begail 2-8 3-5 8, Kiersten Nezzie 1-3 4-4 7, Shandiin Armao 1-2 2-2 4. Totals 12-30 12-17 38.

PAGE (31-2)
Abjabah James 1-3 1-2 3, Amber Tso 2-3 1-2 6, Boka Claw 2-5 3-4 9, Malarie Williams 6-12 3-4 16, Chelsey Rocke 2-5 0-1 5, Erin West 2-7 1-1 7, Tiara Collins 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 15-37 9-14 46.

Winslow  7  8   9  14  - 38
Page       7  6  11 22  - 46

3-point goals: Winslow 2-4 (Begail, Nezzie), Page 7-17 (Claw, West, Tso, Williams, Rocke). Rebounds: Winslow 26 (Armao 6), Page 18 (James 5). Assists: Winslow 8 (Begaii 4), Page 10 (Claw 4). Fouled out: Hayes.