Defense has been a work in progress for Seton's girls basketball team this season. The process may have reached its zenith Friday afternoon.

With the games getting tougher the last week or so, No. 2 Seton played one of its better games covering the opposition and it resulted in a 56-31 triumph over No. 3 Thunderbird in a Division II semifinal at Grand Canyon University.

Seton (29-5) plays in its fifth championship game in six years on Monday at 2 p.m. at Gile River Arena. The Lady Sentinels take on Maricopa, a 59-50 winner over Ironwood Ridge tin the other semi for the title. Coach Karen Self and her team look for the school's eighth title in the game on Monday. Marciopa and coach Kati Burrows seek their school's first.

Rebounding and defense were what Self focused on with her teamprior to the game  and the final stats said they listened. Seton won the battle of the boards, 46-23. And they limited Thunderbird to 10 points in the second half -- two in the final period. From the 6:20 mark of the third period to the final buzzer, Seton outscored Thunderbird 31-6 -- the last time the game was tied.

"Our No. 1 goal was offensive rebounds, getting them and limiting those for them," Self said.

The only facet that cut into Seton performance early was turnovers. Seton had eight in the first period and 10 in the first half. But the Lady Sentinels were so tough on the boards it nearly made the stat a moot point.

Seton, which started three sophomores and two freshmen, got 21 points from freshman land leading scorer Sarah Barcello. Sophomore twin post LeeAnne Wirth added 18 with aggressive play inside  --plus 12 rebounds.

Self singled out LeeAnne and Jenn Wirth for their defense as well as guard Liz Holter, who drew the assignment on TBird's junior point guard Ozahria Fisher. Fisher scored five points in the first period and totaled just seven for the game. Post Brianna Lehew led Thunderbird with 11 points. She had three fouls at halftime and didn't factor   offensively in the second half with just two points.

MARICOPA 59, IRONWOOD RIDGE 50: Danae Ruiz scored 11 points in the final period as the Lady Rams (28-5) pulled away in the final period to top the Lady Nighthawks ((26-8).

Ruiz, stymied by foul trouble in the first half, finished with 13 points. Raegene Womack added 12 points, Ashleigh Haley and Tiara Edmond nine points each for Maricopa. Ironwood Ridge got 12 points from Natalie Bartle, 11 from Alyssa Madlangbayan and nine from Piper Mali.

Maricopa is the No. 12 seed and has played through three higher seeds to reach the final. Seton and Maricopa are in the same section and played two close games during the season.