Austin Green is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism master's student assigned to cover Sandra Day O'Connor for AZPreps365.com

 

TEMPE–Up against a fierce Corona del Sol perimeter defense, the No. 19 Sandra Day O’Connor Eagles succumbed to some costly late turnovers and fell by a score of 57-45 to the No. 14 Aztecs in the AIA 6A state tournament play-in round.

 

Corona del Sol’s guards smothered their Eagle counterparts in the halfcourt, picking their pockets numerous times for easy steals, and kept O’Connor senior forwards and top scorers Zach Rama and Xavier Ali out of rhythm all game long.

 

“Corona was physical,” O’Connor head coach Joshua Cole said. “They were really physical with those guys. [Rama and Ali] are good shooters and they missed some open ones. I don't know if it was confidence or what, but Corona did a really good job on us.”

 

Rama, who is one of the top volleyball players in Arizona and is committed to play that sport at UCLA, had been averaging 16 points per game since gaining eligibility to play basketball late in the season. Ali had been the Eagles’ most consistent scorer all year, averaging 15 points per game coming into Friday night. They finished with just 11 and 10 points, respectively. Rama did not make a shot from the field in the first half and Ali failed to do so in the second half.

 

Their teammates fared even worse, as O’Connor’s guards were overwhelmed by the physicality of their Corona del Sol counterparts on both ends of the floor, coughing up the ball on offense and running out of steam on defense as the game wore on. Of the five guards the Eagles played on Friday, only senior shooting guard Kellan Hoppanworth made it onto the scoreboard with seven points, a testament to the physicality of the Aztecs’ press defense in the backcourt.

 

“It was big,” Corona del Sol head coach Neil MacDonald said. “I mean, that's what we pride ourselves on. Defense is what's gotten us here. We guard the three-point line pretty well normally and we felt like that was what we needed to do to win tonight.”

 

But Corona del Sol was unable to pull away from O’Connor (7-11)for most of the night, thanks in large part to Eagle freshman forward Michael Simcoe, who finished with a team-high 13. Several of those points came on put-back layups after missed shots from teammates. When Simcoe cooled off a bit in the second half, Rama took over with some sweet finishes of his own around the paint, keeping the Eagles within striking distance.

 

 

A late four-point run featuring back-to-back buckets from Rama gave the Eagles some much-needed momentum, forcing MacDonald to call a timeout up three with just over two minutes left in the game. Corona del Sol (11-7) missed the ensuing shot, but senior guard Brandon Lee stole the ball as O’Connor sophomore guard Jason Cullum brought it up the court, and found Aztecs junior center in the paint for an easy layup.

 

That started a 6-0 Corona del Sol run that was capped off by Aztec sophomore guard Preston Lee stealing the ball and finishing a layup on the other end through contact, setting up a three-point opportunity and giving the home team its largest lead of the game with just over a minute to play. The full-capacity Corona del Sol student section–which had been loud all night– broke into a deafening roar, and the Aztecs never looked back from there.

 

“They’ve got good guards,” Cole said. “We thought we were prepared for that. That late stretch, it was a three point game, then that busted it open, the back to back turnovers [when] we had a chance to cut the lead to one or tie the game up. I thought that was the difference right there.”

 

Corona del Sol will learn iits opponent in the 6A state playoffs when the tournament bracket is released on Saturday morning. O’Connor finished 7-11 in its first year with Cole as head coach.