Mesquiite's girls basketball team was denied a tournament title last month by Seton Catholic and settled for second in HIghland's Thanksgiving  Invite, but in this week's Nike TOC the Wildcats were not to be denied.

Tournament outstanding player Shaylee Gonzales and all-bracket mate Lindsey VanAllen continued steller work in Thursday's final helping the Wildcats defeat Incarnate Word St. Louis, MO, 60-50, to win the John Anderson bracket at Mesquite High.

Mesquite ran its record to 15-1 and has stretched its current winning streak to nine games. Shaylee Gonzales,a BYU commit, scored 20 points and VanAllen checked in with 11. The Wildcats didn't wait as long to gain control of the contest as they did in Wednesday's semis when the third period suppied separation. They made a late run just before the half to take 23-16 lead to intermission. 

The catalyst this day was post Lauren Gustin. Gustin scored nine points in the opening half  working the boards, getting out on the break and capping the half with her first 3 of the season. Gustin, who hadn't scored a lot iin the previoous two games after hitting for 20 in th tourney opener, finished with 17 points and added a double-digit total on the glass. Gustin had rebound totals of 15, 14 and 10 in the prior three tourney games.

Mesquite coach Candice Gonzales credited Gustin for a lot of the team's success Thursday. 

"She's done a great job rebounding the whole tournament," Gonzales said. "We noticed No. 35 (Rickie Woltman) wasn't involved much in their offense so we went away from guarding her. That put Lauren in the middle and she plugged the lane."

Mesquite took a 37-27 lead to the final period and rebounded quickly from some turbulence.  Back-to-back baskets by Incarnate Word's Kiki Britzmann (team-high 16 points) in the first minute of the quarter cut the margin to 37-31. An 11-2 Mesquite run over the next three-plus minutes ballooned the lead to 15. Gonzales, VanAllen and Gustin combined to score 20 of Mesquite's final 23 points.

Mesquite is likely to be offered a spot in the elite division of next year's tournament (Joe Smith  bracket) as eight of its nine players and all five its starters Thursday have a year or two of eligibility left.

Arizona also had another bracket winner in the five-bracket event. Chaparral defeated sister-school Desert Mountain, 46-42, to win the Dan Wiley Bracket. Chaparral may be the top contender to Mesquite in 5A as the season begins its second half after the holidays.

Other Arizona schools with solid finishes in the four-day event this week -- Seton Catholic (sixth in the Joe Smith); Gilbert (fifth in the Derril Kipp) and Cactus Shadows (fourth in the Mike Desper).