Dec. 20-23: Pima Community College

Tucson High went 4-0 to capture the championship of the Pima Community College Aztec Classic held this week in Tucson. The Badgers defeated Sahuaro 61-47 in the semifinal round on Thursday and Chandler 54-38 in the championship final Friday night. Chandler beat ALA-Ironwood 65-51 in the semifinals.

Tucson is now 12-2 overall and 5-2 in power-ranking games with the first set of AIA rankings set to be released on Jan. 5. Chandler is 8-9 overall and 3-6 overall. Tucson and Chandler compete in the 6A Conference.

In the final, Antoine Green scored 11 of his game-high 17 points in the first half to pace the Badgers to an 18-8 lead with 8:26 left but the Wolves went on a 9-3 run to cut the lead down to 21-17 with 31.8 seconds left. Chandler junior Ezias Steffen led the Wolves with 11 of his 14 points at that point in the game but Julio Marquez hit a 3-pointer to put the Badgers up 24-17 after the Wolves missed three free throws and an open layup. Quintin Ragland made three free throws after he was fouled on a long attempt with 5 seconds left and the Badgers ended the threat with a 27-17 lead at the half.

The Wolves were held back the rest of the way with Steffen scoring with 2:45 left in the game on a dunk to cut the Badger lead down to 48-37 but Tucson ended the game on a 6-1 run for the 5-38 win.

Green had his 17 points, Marquez added 15 and Adam Bernal had 10 points for Tucson. Steffen led Chandler with 14 points, and Braylen Singleton and Chris Washkevich scored eight points each. Chandler will host Mesa Mountain View (7-7, 7-2) on Jan. 3 and Tucson has a bit of a break and the Badgers will visit Mountain Pointe (6-3, 4-2) on Jan. 7.

The next boys’ basketball tournament in Southern Arizona will be the Pueblo Santa Cruz Shoot Out with Pueblo, St. Augustine, Nogales, Sunnyside, Rincon/University and Kofa taking part.