Arizona's top girls basketball teams make big statements at Nike tournament

Last week’s Nike Tournament of Champions pitted the best girls’ high school basketball teams in Arizona against some of the top teams from around the nation. With that, we’ve learned more about where Arizona’s title contenders stand in this unique season, which brings the first Open Division for basketball.

Here are four of those lessons from the tournament:

Desert Vista is legit — nationally

Desert Vista isn’t just the best team in the state, its among the best in the country. The Thunder were the only Arizona school in the Tournament of Champions’ Vincent division, which included national powerhouses like ESPN No. 1 Sidwell Friends (D.C.).

While Desert Vista lost its first game of the week, the Thunder rebounded with back-to-back wins, including a 68-66 thriller on Wednesday over St. Mary’s Stockton, which reached the California state semifinals last year.

Third-year coach Dave Williams said that playing against elite competition has taught his team discipline that isn’t required in blowout wins.

“(Wednesday) was the most disciplined game we played this year,” Williams said. “Ran the plays, found the mismatches, made the right situations.”

That helped Desert Vista jump out to a 13-point lead entering the fourth quarter. But when Shay Ijiwoye — The Republic’s No. 1 player in the state — fouled out, that lead evaporated. With 33.1 seconds left, the Thunder entered their final possession locked in a 66-66 tie.

Enter Jerzy Robinson. The freshman took a high ball-screen to her right, lost a defender and rose up to nail the game-winning jumper with 2 seconds left.

“She got that Mamba mentality, man,” Williams said. “She's just a killer. I'm sorry. She's a killer. … She can do a lot of stuff. She can play 1-4 in high school, at the next level 1-3 and handle, facilitate, make big shots. Post up and facilitate from the post.”

The play illustrated why Robinson is among the most touted freshmen in the country. The last time Williams had a freshman like this, he said, was when he coached boys and had Brandon Clarke, who went on to become a first-round NBA draft pick. It also showed the type of talent that makes Desert Vista so hard to beat, even with Ijiwoye sidelined.

Perry is Arizona’s second best team

Among the TOC’s seven brackets, Perry was the only Arizona team to reach a championship game thanks to three single-digit wins over strong competition from Alaska, California and North Carolina.

The star, as has been the case for the past two years, was Khamil Pierre, The Republic’s No. 2 player in the state. She has a guard’s skillset packed into a 6-foot-2 frame and can do just about anything coach Andrew Perry asks of her. But last year, Perry was overly reliant on Pierre. She willed them to the 6A state championship game, but they struggled at times in the regular season and only came away with the state’s No. 11 seed before going on a playoff run.

Now, the Pumas are much more well-rounded. Center Lauren Crocker moved down from Canada and, in Curtis’ words, provides “another inside presence so Khamil can guard a little more perimeter and help on the perimeter which is good. … Our flexibility defensively is a lot better this year.”

Perry’s other additions include freshman guard Sage Henry and transfers Isabella Ivy and Ella Murakami. Plus, there’s senior guard Halena Hill, who missed all of last year with an injury.

“Last year we didn't have any outside shooting,” Curtis said. “We can defend this year, we could defend last year. I think this year we can stretch a little more. We have more outside shooting which hopefully alleviates.”

Xavier Prep isn’t far behind

Xavier Prep fell just short of a division championship game battle with Perry, but the Gators have still had an impressive 2-1 week. They’re 9-1 on the season with big in-state wins over Millennium and Cibola in addition to their two TOC wins.

The most impressive thing about the Gators’ season, though, is that they’ve done it without star guard Sarah Nakamura Miller, who is one of the 10 best players in the state when healthy. Miller tore her ACL in May and is targeting a return to action within the next month.

“They showed how much heart they have, that they can dig deep,” said assistant coach Patrick Mangosing, who led the Gators on Wednesday with head coach Jennifer Gillom out. “Sometimes they were down, but they fought back, they battled. And that's the last two years prior, you would see if we were down, we would hang our head. We didn't do that this week. So I'm very proud of them.”

Without Miller, Xavier Prep has relied on a massive season from junior guard Dominique Nesland, who is averaging 20.3 points per game. Maureen Ulrich has also stepped up in a big way as the Gators’ key presence on the inside.

“They know that Sarah Miller was hurt,” Mangosing said. “They're gonna do whatever they can to improve. And then when she comes in, it's an added bonus. … You can't replace a Sarah Miller so we're just waiting for her to be healthy, 100%. It's gonna elevate us.”

Seton Catholic back atop 4A

2021-22 was a rare down year for Seton Catholic, which had won five 4A titles in six seasons. That’s not to say the Sentinels were bad — they made the state semifinals, after all. But by the expectations established in three decades under Karen Self, it was disappointing.

To wit, Seton Catholic lost by 13 to eventual champions Salpointe Catholic in the semifinals. When the two teams met earlier this month, Seton Catholic was much more competitive before falling, 53-52. Then, on Wednesday, they finally got over that hurdle in a 53-46 win.

“That's always gonna be a nice rivalry for us,” Self said. “So much respect for their kids and their coaching staff and everything they've accomplished. So for us, that's a bit of a feather in our cap for sure.”

Seton Catholic’s success in its 9-4 start is notable, in part, because it lost Sasha Daniel in the off-season. A year ago, Daniel was the type of player who could take over games, averaging 16.4 points in the process — 5.6 points more than any other Sentinel.

This year, Self doesn’t have that type of standout star. Instead, she has a balanced team that can get contributions from anywhere.

“It makes you hard to guard,” Self said. “You can't really key off of anybody. That's why Salpointe's so good. They don't really have anybody you can just leave and key on Taliyah (Henderson). You've gotta guard everybody. So the drawback I guess is no one person's getting the experience of taking over a game — like Taliyah took over and that was her whole mission and they were gonna live and die by that. Yeah, we don't have that, but we have a lot of kids that can hurt you.”

On Wednesday, Seton Catholic’s versatility showed. In the first half, the Sentinels used their outside shooting to jump out to a lead. When Salpointe Catholic adjusted to that and got itself back into the game, Seton Catholic was able to respond by repeatedly going inside to Mia DiPuccio and Caitlyn Benally.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona's top girls basketball teams making national waves