By Don Ketchum

It has been a long, eventful season for the girls’ basketball team from Chandler Seton Catholic.

It is a season that will continue for at least a few more days, courtesy of a 57-52 victory over Tucson Flowing Wells in a Division  II quarterfinal game on Tuesday (Feb. 21) at Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix.

Seton (21-8), the No. 3 seed, moves on to a semifinal game at GCU on Thursday (2:30 p.m.) against Tucson Palo Verde or Scottsdale Saguaro. Flowing Wells, the No. 6 seed, finished 27-4.

Long-time Seton coach Karen Self, who led the Sentinels to the last two Class 4A Division II titles before the new realignment, wasn’t sure how her team would fare in the division against some of the bigger teams.

Little did she know that the team would allow her to pick up her 500^th career victory a few weeks ago, providing some momentum for the state tournament.

“We only had four kids with a lot of experience, so to close this game out . . . I’m just so proud,’’ she said.

Flowing Wells appeared to control the tempo in most of the first half.

Lyndsay Leikem was the primary player for Flowing Wells, often grabbing the rebound and going coast to coast. She finished with 21 points.

Flowing Wells trailed by two points entering the fourth quarter, but scored the first six points of the fourth to take a 47-43 lead.

Susan Spinner hit a 3-pointer to keep Seton close, but a full-length drive by Leikem and a free throw by Czarina Walker made it 50-46.

That’s when Seton’s Anne Marie Holter went to work.

In the final 3:35, she hit a 3-pointer and was 6-of-6 from the foul line to enable Seton to come back.

Her last two free throws with 15.7 seconds left were set up when Jessica Bailey tipped away the inbounds pass by Flowing Wells and Seton gained possession.

“She (Holter) hit 11 of 14 against (Phoenix) Arcadia earlier in the tournament, and she was “money’ for us today,’’ Self said.

Holter was 9 of 9 from the line and finished with a game-high 24 points. Spinner scored 14 points and Julia Barcello had 13.