David Veenstra is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover St. Mary's for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX – A 55-foot buzzer-beating three-pointer from Mesquite senior guard Nate Calmese sent the Wildcats to Monday's 4A state championship final, as No. 6 Mesquite stunned No. 2 St. Mary's, 74-73, on Tuesday night.

Mesquite, which led by as many as 15 points earlier in the game, overcame a five-point deficit in the final :45 filled with controversy.

"Just gritty against a great team," Mesquite coach Shawn Lynch said after his team's victory. 

After Mesquite senior guard Elijah Foster hit a three-pointer with six seconds left to trim St. Mary's lead to 73-71, the clock should have continued to run as Mesquite had no timeouts left, according to AIA rules. However, the referee stopped the clock after a Mesquite player threw the ball at him (which landed out of bounds). A delay of game on Mesquite was called and the clock was set to 2.3 seconds.

St. Mary's sophomore guard Styles Phipps inbounded the ball, opting to toss a home-run pass downcourt to teammate Jeremiah Cherry. Phipps' three-quarter court toss was tipped by Calmese. After deflecting off Mesquite's Kayson Bryant, the ball bounced into the hands of Calmese. With uncanny presence of mind and with a Knight defender in his face, Calmese calmly tossed a prayer from backcourt that banked in for the game-winning three as time expired.

"When I released it I knew it was going in," Calmese said. "I saw it from the jump, I knew it was going in." 

"That's Nate," Lynch said after the buzzer-beater. "That's just Nate. Hey, this is a players' game. Players make plays. What a highlight. Nate's an incredible player."

The ball appeared to still be in Calmese's hands as the final buzzer sounded (the photo above suggests the same), but the shot could not be reviewed and Mesquite advanced to the state championships final.

"I didn't think he got it off in time," St. Mary's coach Damin Lopez said. "At the end of the day, it's not what happened. It's not that he didn't get it off in time or any of that, we just didn't make the plays when we needed to. So, you know, that's it at the end of the day."

St. Mary's Garrison Phelps, who finished with 24 points, opened the game's scoring with an emphatic alley-oop before Mesquite went on a 14-0 run, which led to a Knights timeout with 3:44 left in the first quarter.

Later, a layup from Mesquite junior Cohenj Gonzales with 4:12 left in the first half put the Wildcats ahead, 29-14, their biggest lead of the night. Gonzales scored 18 of his team's 37 points in the first half. He finished with a game-high 28 points and shot 57% from the field. 

An ensuing 7-0 run from St. Mary's, led by Phelps and Phipps, cut the deficit to eight with 2:49 left in the first half. Mesquite later claimed an 11-point lead going into the half.

With 6:20 left in the third quarter, Calmese put the Wildcats up, 42-29.

A vigorous dunk from Phelps, which later led to an ensuing steal and layup from Phelps with 4:57 left in the third, forced a Mesquite timeout, with the Wildcats leading 42-33. Phelps grabbed another steal and drew a foul before St. Mary's junior forward Seydou Tamboura secured an offensive rebound, drew a foul and made two free throws to trim Mesquite's lead to seven.

Mesquite called another timeout, up 42-35, with 4:07 left in the third. However, out of the timeout, Gonzales scored a four-point play to put the Wildcats back up by 11. Mesquite entered the fourth quarter leading 50-42.

Mesquite grew its lead by one point halfway through the fourth quarter, 61-52. However, with 3:08 left, St. Mary's began an 11-point run and reclaimed the lead for the first time since the game's opening basket. A Cherry lay-up with 1:45 remaining put the Knights up 64-63 in front of their raucous home crowd.

"Being down we just wanted to win and give everything we had," said Phipps, who scored  15 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.

With 43.1 seconds left, Mesquite's Gonzales drew a foul and made both free throws, ending a nearly four-minute scoreless streak. The two free throws cut St. Mary's lead to three points, 68-65.

Over the next 24 seconds the teams exchanged free throws, as Mesquite fouled to regain possession. Three different St. Mary's players would make five separate trips to the charity stripe, each draining one of two. Gonzales converted three of three for Mesquite after being fouled beyond the arc.

At the end of this impromptu free throw exhibition, St. Mary's led 73-68 with 19.3 seconds remaining in someone's season. Mesquite's Foster then drained the three-pointer with six seconds left to pull the Wildcats within two, 73-71. That's when Calmese's Hail Mary three-pointer buried St. Mary's.

"We just stayed composed," said Calmese, after his shot sent Mesquite to the school's first state championsip game. "We know it's a game of runs and they're gonna have their runs and we're gonna have ours, but we stayed composed and stayed locked in as a team." 

Mesquite will face No. 1 Salpointe Catholic in Monday's 4A state championship final at 8:00 p.m. at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

"When it gets tough, they come in, they just get in your grill and they did that to us, and they shook us a little bit," Lynch said. "But our guys stuck with it. We haven't seen team pressure like this all year. I'm just proud of our guys."