No. 2 Seton Catholic and No. 3 Mesquite traded defensive prowess for 32 minutes Friday afternoon in their bid to reach the 4A girls basketballl title game. 

It was a fight to the finish -- gladiators to the death. Seton emerged bruised, but able to play on. 

Seton outscored Mesquite, 7-2, in the fourth quarter to pull out a 30-26 semifinal victory over Mesquite at Grand Canyon University. The region rivals met for the third time having split their regular-season meetings.

Seton (24-6) faces top-seed Shadow Mountain, a 79-55 winner over No. 4 Sahuaro in Friday's other semifinal, on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the title game at Gila River Arena. It's the sixth consecutive title-game appearance for Seton and ninth of 10 this decade. The Sentinels are shooting for a fourpeat.

Mesquite finished 20-9 playing good enough defense to win. The difference on the stat sheet came at the free-throw line -- Seton 12 of 18 and Mesquite 5 of 8. Add a pair of baskets Seton made in the final period thanks to a steal and transition layup and that tipped the scale Seton's way.

No player on either team scored in double figures. Senior McKenna Klecker led Seton with seven points and six rebounds. Freshman Sasha Daniel and senior Kendyl Thompson chipped in six points each. Sophomore Amanda Barcello grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out four assists. Seton enjoyed a 36-26 edge on the boards. Mesquite was led by senior Zyan Smith with eight points and eight rebounds.

"Defense was what put us above in this game," Barcello said "Low scoring games come down to defense. We wanted to get to the (championship) game badly. We brought it, and showed we were ready."

The largest lead for either team was six (20-14 Seton at half) and they traded leads every quarter. Mesquite pulled in front going to the final quarter using a 10-3 advantage in the third to go up 24-23.

Seton took 20 seconds to take the lead back for good doing so on a steal and runner by freshman Lexi McNabb. Daniel sank a 15-footer from the baseline for a 27-24 advantage. Neither team scored over the next three-plus minutes, but the next basket was huge.

Mesquite was able to put up two shots on a possession with 2:30 to go, one a three-pointer that if good would have tied the game. Barcello Seton controlled a board after the second miss hit Thompson ahead of the pack for the game's rare uncontested layin and a 29-24 advantage.

Mesquite managed its only points of the quarter ith 51 seconds left on two free throws by Hannah Edgeston that pulled the Wildcats within three. Seton cinched it with 16 seconds left on a free throw by Klecker. Mesquite was 0 for 9 from the field in the final period.

Seton coach Karen Self pointed to her team's first meeting with Mesquite.   Mesquite won that one in overtime and Self knew after that loss defense was what practice would be all about going forward.

"That was an eye-opening game for us," Self said. "It showed me how little we were competing on defense. The last two times we've played them our team defense was better. All we do now in practice is work on defense. If we didn't have the effort to match Mesquite's today which was as good as ours, we wouldn't have won."

Mesquite coach Candice Gonzales agreed the game was all about defense.

"That's the reason it was so low scoring," Gonzales said. "I thought we got the shots we wanted underneath enough, but we didn't finish. All the stats point to an even game. Shooting was even.The turnovers even. Field goals even. They shot 18 free throws and we shot 8. We didn't get to the line as much."