Evan Porter is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover North Canyon High School for AZPreps365.com

The North Canyon Rattlers rolled past Sierra Linda 72-13 on Thursday night, extending their win streak to seven.

They improve to 15-2 overall and 11-1 in the 5A Metro region. It was a special night for the Rattlers as they celebrated senior night.

After a slow start in the first quarter, things started to turn around quickly for the Rattlers. Wyatt Mackay checked in off the bench and scored six points in a quick manner.

It was all gas and no brakes from there, as the Rattlers became active and aggressive on the defensive end. Mackay had 14 points and hit three 3-pointers.

King Turner, who led the Rattlers with 22 points, was active on the glass and had two big-time breakaway dunks after Sierra Linda turnovers. This got the crowd going. Turner would go on to drain a buzzer-beating corner 3, putting North Canyon up 37-8 at the half.

“Our energy and momentum just went up after that,'' Turner said of the corner 3. "The team hyped me up, the crowd, just a real good moment. It felt good.” 

Peanut Barnes was a big contributor on both ends for the Rattlers. Scoring the ball, passing and creating shots for others, as well as his intense defense on the ball was a huge positive.

Defense is something that the Rattlers take a ton of pride in and Barnes described why it's such a focus: “We work on defense a lot in practice, that’s our main focus,'' he said. "It starts with defense, so we like defense a lot." 

The Rattlers fed off that defensive energy all night as they never seemed to slow down on that end.  

Coach Michael O’Guinn was happy with the defensive effort.

“We stepped it up, we played hard," O’Guinn said. "That’s the one thing that we can count on any given night. We’re going to play tough defensively. You know, it was a weird game, but we changed the tempo by picking it up on defense.”

The Rattlers home crowd was excited to see every player get on the scoreboard for senior night. O’Guinn said it was a special night for the program.

“Well, I think tonight was a special night because it's senior night, and anytime you can get all the guys some type of recognition and playing time is a good thing,'' he said.

The Rattlers move onto Friday night’s game against Paradise Valley. They look to close out the regular season with their eighth straight win before they prepare for the playoffs.