No. 4 Perry's girls basketball team took another incremental step forward in its bid to win a 6A championship on Thursday night, slamming the door on No. 5 Sandra Day O'Connor in the second half in a 70-55 win in a quarterfinal game at Perry.

Perry (21-7), which lost a play-in game two years ago, drew a bye and won a first-round game last year, now has a quarterfinal chip to play. The Pumas pay a visit to top-seed Valley Vista in a semifinal clash next Wednesday (Feb. 26). Valley Vista knocked Perry out of the tournament last year in the quarterfinals. 

Sandra Day O'Connor (23-4) was still within striking distance as the fourth quarter began, but a quick early run by Perry in the stanza put the skids to the Eagles' season. SDO junior guard Elle Walker scored a game-high 21 points, 14 in the second half. SDO's only losses to Arizona schools this season were to Pinnacle twice and Perry.

"They wouldn't go away," Curtis said of the Eagles, who substituted early and often in an up-tempo game. "We played a team like them in Clovis West, a  top 25-team in the country. "We decided to counter that by rotating a starter in and out for a blow here or there. I think it worked pretty well."

Curtis is always worried when opponents make a run at the Pumas and with the level of opponent rising with each game that was the lead discussion at halftime.

"We didn't make any major changes," Curtis said. "Just wanted to make sure we limited their runs when they made one. There have been times this season when runs against us snowball, and I didn't want that to happen."

The junior-dominated lineup, much the same the past three years coach Mike Curtis rolls out each game, was clicked. Just not at the same time. Sort of in shifts. To wit:

Junior forward Jayden James, after singing a poised and pleasant rendition of the National Anthem prior to tipoff, scored 11 of her 13 points in the first half. Six of those to lead Perry in the first quarter, which saw the Pumas open with a 19-14 advantage . 

in the second quarter enter Tatyanna Clayburne to complement James. Clayburne finished the half with 10 points. When the final buzzer sounded Clayburne had a team-high 15 points.

 Although Perry's lead (11 at one point in the second quarter), didn't go up at half (34-29), it was enough to allow leading scorer Madison Conner time to come to life with scoring.

Conner struggled with her shot making only 1 of 9 in the first half. She rebounded with 11 points the final two quarters (finishing with 14) and handed off several nice assists for layups. 

Not to be forgotten was Shayla O'Neil. She scored seven of of her 14 points early in the final quarter that boosted a 49-39 lead to 58-43 with 4:34 to play.

Perry had seven players score on Thursday, six were juniors who for the most part are in their third full varsity season.