Salpointe battled back from an early deficit to defeat Catalina Foothills 63-55 Saturday night at the Pima West Gym to capture the championship of the Dick McConnell Thanksgiving Classic. The Lancers went 3-0 in the tournament and the Falcons finished 2-1.

The tournament is named after legendary Sahuaro head coach Dick McConnell, who passed away in 2019, and the current group of Cougars went 3-0 to win the championship of the Silver Bracket. Sahuaro beat Mica Mountain 68-63 in that championship game held earlier in the day.

The Salpointe/Catalina Foothills tilt is one of the biggest rivalries in Southern Arizona with the programs typically battling it out in the regular season and in the playoffs but the Falcons moved up to the 5A Conference in 2020 which means no more high stakes postseason matches between the two schools with Salpointe competing at the 4A level. Games played during tournaments do not count towards power-rankings but the two teams are scheduled to meet again at Salpointe on Feb. 2 in a regular season game.

Dillan Baker is guarded by Raj Carmichael and Alberto Mendoza (24). (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Led by Alberto Mendoza, who scored a team-high 14 points, Catalina Foothills built a 23-14 lead on Salpointe with 3:34 left in the first half but the Lancers closed the half on a 9-4 run to cut the lead down to 27-23 at the break with Canyon Torres hitting a 3-pointet at the buzzer for the Lancers.

Torres scored 15 points in the game to go along with the game-high 16 from Julian Riesgo. Dillan Baker added 12, Brett Rosenblatt scored 11 and James Smotherman pitched in nine more and a 3-pointer from Rosenblatt with 14:01 left in the second half tied the game up at 30-30 and then Baker scored a couple minutes later and the Lancers never gave up the lead from there.

Salpointe built a 52-39 lead with 4:10 left in the game but Josh Sochan (10 points), Dylan Hadley (9) and Cole Pinckney (8) came up big down the stretch but the Lancer lead was too much to overcome with time running out. Hadley hit a 3-pointer to end the game for the 63-55 final.

Salpointe hosts Amphitheater (1-2) on Tuesday, Nov. 3 and Catalina Foothills will travel to play Desert View (0-3) on Monday night.

Pima College will also play host to the Aztec Classic Christmas Invitational starting on Dec. 20. Current Pima Men’s coach Brian Peabody played for McConnell at Sahuaro and he served as his assistant coach for seven years before taking over his own programs (Green Fields, St. Gregory, Salpointe, Ironwood Ridge) with state championships at Green Fields in 1991 and Ironwood Ridge in 2008.