By Don Ketchum

Thatcher High’s boys took care of business in Friday night’s (Feb. 24) Division III state tournament semifinal with a heart-pounding 78-67 victory in double overtime over Holbrook at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale.

So now that the fourth-seeded Eagles have sent the No. 1 seed home, it stands to reason that they can defeat second-seeded Gilbert Christian in Saturday’s (Feb. 25) championship game, right?

“It was a great win for us. We will see how much (energy) we have left,’’ said Thatcher coach Chris Cook, whose team improved to 30-3. Thatcher fell to Phoenix Westwind Prep in last year’s Class 2A title game.

The Eagles headed to their hotel with a relatively quick turnaround. The title game is at 6 p.m. at Jobing.com. That’s less than 24 hours (20 to be exact) after the 10 p.m. finish on Friday. By comparison, Gilbert Christian’s semifinal win over Snowflake ended at about 6 p.m. Friday.

There also is the matter of Thatcher’s two losses to Gilbert Christian this season. The first was a 75-41 rout on Feb. 3 and the next was much closer, 56-45 on Feb. 11 in the Division III Section II tournament final.

Thatcher appeared it would win somewhat easily on Friday night, building a 12-point halftime lead against Holbrook (32-4). But the Roadrunners roared back in the second half to send the game into overtime.

Holbrook, which trailed 49-40 after three quarters, used a 3-pointer from Bryson Keoni to pull even  with about a minute to go. Thatcher lost the ball out of bounds with 41.1 seconds left, but Holbrook could not take advantage.

Thatcher took a 64-61 lead with eight seconds left in overtime on Nick Orr’s putback of a missed free throw. Keoni came up big again with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie it again. The ball almost spun out, adding a few more tense moments.

The Eagles dominated the second overtime with a 14-3 run. Kolby Alva led the way with five points.

Guard Mitchell Goodman led Thatcher with 25 points, including five 3-pointers. Alva had 22 and the 6-foot-9 Orr had 10 points to go with 15 rebounds.

Torriam Epps had 18 points and 12 rebounds for Holbrook. Keoni scored 15 and Ryan Baldonado had 13.