Stella Tai is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Camelback High School for AZPreps365.com

With 53 seconds remaining, Camelback finally got its first lead of the night since 4-0. However, Carl Hayden junior point guard Tion Wright’s putback with less than three seconds to go silenced the home crowd on Thursday night, staving off the Spartans’ ferocious comeback, 64-63.  

The Falcons only made two field goals in the final quarter, but one of them came at just the right time.

“That's the most important one, right?” Carl Hayden coach Rodney Brown said. “So sometimes things don't go our way. We just found a rebound but couldn't get one right there. And we finally got one.”

Carl Hayden entered the game well-prepared, designing a compact defensive strategy against Camelback’s strong attacking firepower. Its full-court press put great pressure on the Spartans’ offense, which had at least eight turnovers in each of the first three quarters.

“We knew that they had great arms, great five players, but I know we put pressure on them,” Brown said. “That's how we play the whole season. Tonight it looked great for us.”

The Falcons took advantage of the Spartans’ errors, launching a 9-2 run in the first quarter with multiple fastbreaks and points off turnovers, including two four-point plays from the senior point guard Santino Esquivel. 

They pushed their lead to 19 midway through the second quarter after Camelback failed to pass away from the defense and even dribble the ball across the half court on five consecutive plays. Tion Wright chipped in 10 points during Carl Hayden’s 17-0 run that gave the Falcons a 34-15 lead.

The smothering defense left the Spartans no space to shoot from the outside which greatly hurt their attacking. It wasn’t until 4:04 in the second quarter that they finally drilled in their first perimeter shot of the night. 

“They play a lot of pressure defense so it's kind of tough to get a lot of perimeter shots,” Camelback coach Glen Ellis said. “Since they're playing so close, our strategy is to drive to the basket and try to attack the basket. They did a good job of speeding us up and making us make a lot of bad decisions with the ball. That really hurt us.”

Two main Spartans -- sophomore guard Jaylin Ideran and junior center Kofi Idris -- barely took the floor after the opening quarter. Ideran, who nailed an incredible buzzer beater last Thursday, did not even start the second-half of the game. 

Being asked about whether this decision had something to do with their performance, Ellis said he just wanted to test if role players could give the team some better chemistry.  

“We saw someone on our end where we thought we could take advantage of,” Ellis said. “So we tried a couple of different guys off the bench and also gave our guys a rest. Because you know, we had a lot of games in the last 10 days. So we're just trying to get those guys some rest because we kind of saw some fatigue. So we just brought some guys in off the bench, to try to give them a chance if they can give us a spark.”

Despite having a great first half where two players, Esquivel and Wright, scored in double digits and the team knocked down five three-pointers, Carl Hayden only had five field goals and no triples following the break. Brown agreed that their offense got slowed down because of the fatigue players experienced from the full-court press. 

Trailing 51-36 with 24.5 seconds left in the third, Camelback mounted a comeback. Thanks to the refreshed Ideran who had 10 points in the final quarter and Idris who recorded seven blocks, the Spartans trimmed the deficit to 53-52 with 5:04 to play. And it remained a one-possession game throughout the last three minutes. 

Camelback junior guard Aken Logan, who played the majority of the game, tried his best to slog through a turnover-filled game by contributing a game-high 21 point and a go-ahead layup with 53 seconds left in the fourth quarter to make it 61-60. 

It was a frantic final minute. After Ideran’s two free throws gave the Spartans a three-point lead, the Falcons responded with a quick drive into the paint. Instead of taking his time executing the last play, Logan turned the ball over by stepping out of bounds, setting up the final possession for Carl Hayden.

 Although the Falcons missed their first chance to seal the game, Wright fought hard to grab an offensive rebound, and put it back into the basket, putting the Falcons on top again, 64-63, as time was about to expire. With no timeout remaining, the Spartans forced a shot from the backcourt, but it was way too short. 

“We switched from a zone to a man defense, full-court man defense,” Ellis said. “And it caused them to start speeding up and making some bad decisions with the ball. So that's what allowed us to get back into the game. Once we put that pressure on them, they started turning the ball over and we started making our layups. It also helped with the momentum and kind of swung the game into our favor, but we just didn't pull it out.”

“We thought the game was over,” Brown said. “It's not the same Camelback team as last year. Kids are playing hard and that coach is doing a great job. He's getting kids ready. Like I said, we thought the game was over. But the game was never over.”