Chris Lopez is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Marcos de Niza for AZPreps365.com

Seton Catholic guard Keyshon Upchurch drove to the basket relentlessly to make a go-ahead floater with 30 seconds left and then scored another to lift the Sentinels past Marcos de Niza,  67-64, Tuesday night in a crucial regional tiebreaker game at Seton.

Upchurch scored a workmanlike 25 points with twitchy moves to the basket that drew a lot of contact. Upchurch, who stands just 5-foot-8 inches tall, stood in front of the Marcos de Niza players bench and cheering section and waved goodbye after the heated game ended.

Upchurch made the two most crucial baskets in a game that Marcos de Niza led for almost all four quarters.

 "We were playing good in transition in the beginning, but in the second half they turned it up on us," Padres forward Asael Worden said. "The crowd definitely got to us cause they were really loud." 

The game was pivotal due to it being a regional tiebreaker and it will help determine the 4A playoff seedings.

The Padres (9-9,  4-6 region) went into the game ranked 17th in the 4A playoff picture. 

The Sentinels (6-12, 5-5  region) were ranked 23rd. 

Marcos de Niza started the game strong with a 10-0 run in the first two minutes due to Padres head coach David Stark pushing a fast tempo on both offense and defense.

The first quarter ended with the Padres leading 19-12 due to the Sentinels making some key stops and not letting the game get too far out of reach.

However, the force that is Russ and Tommy Lingruen is a hard duo to contain.

The two brothers combined for 51 of the Padres' 64 points.

"You just have to be confident and go out there and have fun and if you miss...just keep going, said Russ Lingruen, who finished with 24 points.

With the Padres rebounding well and making quick outlet passes that led to uncontested layups mainly, Marcos de Niza built a 37-27 halftime lead.

"We make it look easy out there, but it's hard work," said Tommy Lingruen, who scored 27 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds.

When the second half began the Sentinels began to match the tempo of the Padres  with a lot of help from their home crowd on Senior Night.

That is when Upchurch started to make his run by scoring in the paint and grabbing the attention of hard nose Padres defender Camrion Bryant with occasional help from a teammate to double team and contain Upshaw for the remainder of the quarter.

The third quarter ended controversially due to a Sentinel player making contested layup, however it looked like the ball received some illegal help from a Sentinel player grabbing the rim and helping the ball go in making the score close with the Padres up by only four now,

With Upchurch leading the way, Seton cut the deficit to 49-45 at the end of the third quarter.

The final quarter started out with a fever-pitch pace with both teams scoring back and forth on each other.

The last 1:10 of the game is where the tension started to build with Tommy Lingruen sinking two free throws to put the Padres ahead, 62-60.

Two more lead changes ensued over the next 30 seconds but the ball was given to Upshaw and he delivered in a big way with two layups to win the game for the Sentinels.

"I feel like we could have hustled more, defended better and grabbed a couple more rebounds and we would have had that game," Worden said.