It's been rare this season that Gilbert's boys basketball team has needed to scratch and claw in the fourth quarter - at least the final seconds of a game -  to win. It happened on Monday night in the 5A semifinals pitting the top-seeded Tigers and No. 4 McCllintock. Gilbert managed to survive.

Keyed by a steal and three-quarters court hustle play from center Carson Towt, Gilbert hung on for a 46-45 victory over McClintock at Wells Fargo Arena.

Gilbert (28-1) moves on to play the second game of next Monday's championship doubleheader at Wells Fargp Arena and will face No. 6 Millennium, which knocked  of #2 Apollo, 72-61 earlier in the evening. Monday's championship games will be an all-Tiger affair with Millennium's girls facing Gilbert's girls for the title at 6 p.m. followed at 8 p.m. by the boys' game. Gilbert and Millennium share the same mascot -- Tigers. McClintock finished its best season under coach Sam Dentz with a 23-6 record. 

Gilbert only trailed the sum total of 1 minute and 17 seconds. At halftime 20-19 and again with 5:18 to play (36-35) after McClintock standout Josh Baker nailed a three from the top of the key. Back-to-back short jumpers by Jake Ehmann (team-high 13 points) put Gilbert back up 39-36, but McClintock pulled within 39-38 after two Donovan Williams free throws. 

Gilbert turned the ball over immediately after on an inbounds miscue giving McClintock a chance to regain the lead. That's where Towt came in. 

The 6-foot-7 senior tipped an inbounds pass away from Jalen Calvert just beyond McClintock's key, chased the ball Gilbert's end near his bench was able to feed it barely standing to teammate Tampa Scott for a layup free throw to make it 42-38 with 2:51 to play. Towt scored eight points, pulled down 13 rebounds and led the Tigers in assists with five.

McClintock had two more possessions to close the gap, down 43-38 with 1:33 left. The Chargers converted one with Chance Garland scoring on a putback with one minute to play making it a one possession game (43-40). Baker drove to the basket trying to score and perhaps get a three-point play the hard way, but the shot was well defended. McClintock had to foul twice in the final 50 seconds after a Gilbert timeout. On both occasions Gilbert missed the front end of one-and-ones.

Gilbert coach Jay Caserio was determined not to let McClintock get off a three-point shot for a tie, especially via the dangerous Baker by fouling. Despite assistants trying to talk him out of it, Gilbert fouled with 7.5 seconds left. Williams again made two free throws making it 43-42. Scott answered with 6.1 seconds left sinking two free throws.

With the margin again three (45-42), Gilbert fouled Baker before he had a chance to launch a shot with 5.4 seconds left. Baker missed the front end of a one-and-one  and Towt rebounded and fouled with 4.3 seconds. He made the first of two for a safe, four-point lead and missed the second. Good thing for the Tigers as a shot at the buzzer from just inside half court by Williams banked in.

Both teams defended hard, making scoring hard to come by. Baker led McClintock with 12 points, but on 5 of 16 shooting from the field. Garland added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Chargers. 

Paul Maldonado scored 10 points for Gilbert, all in the first half. Maldonado hit a pair of threes and took the ball to the basket with authority twice for score. Maldonado had the defensive assignment on Baker and didn't allowed him to score the first 13 minutes of the game. Baker had seven points in the latter part of the second quarter helping the Chargers to the halftime lead.

"I didn't think it was very good basketball," Caserio said of the contest, although not to denigrate the effort both teams put in. "They defend the hell out of you.......

"Maldonado is a gamer. Played a great game. Doc got us some baskets early in the third quarter when we went on that (11-0) run."

Dentz felt the much the same as Caserio, particularly about the defense that was played.

"They make it hard to score," Dentz said. "They made us earn everything. Didn't matter what we tried to do. Just a few plays here and there at the end."