PUSCH RIDGE 55, NW CHRISTIAN 37

NWC: 9-2-16-10: 37

PRCA: 6-16-13-20: 55

NWC: Lincoln Hubbard 4 (1) 3-4: 12; Laki Wallwork 3: 6; Jonah Guillen 2 (1) 1-2: 6; Jaxon Serwa 1 (1) 2-2: 5; Cade Muscari 1: 2; Gavin Lafon 1 0-3: 2; Sergio Leyva 1: 2; Dylan Crawford 2-2: 2. TOTALS: 13 (3) 8-13: 37.

PRCA: Noah McKinney 9 4-5: 22; Santino Almazan 3 (2) 3-4: 11; Benjamin Lambe 4 1-2: 9; Christian Munoz 1 4-4: 6; Levi Adcock 2: 4; Shane Solle 1: 2; Luke Johnson 1-2: 1; Frankie Lopez 0-2: 0. TOTALS: 20 (2) 13-19: 55.

 

No. 10 Pusch Ridge beat No. 25 Northwest Christian 55-37 Friday night at home to advance to the 3A state playoffs slated to start on Tuesday, Feb. 17. The Lions are now seeded No. 8 in the playoffs and will host No. 9 Gilbert Christian. Pusch Ridge won the 3A state championship last winter over Palo Verde and Noah McKinney led the team in scoring at 15.6 points a game as a sophomore. Palo Verde is the top-seed this year and the Titans will play the winner of Gilbert Christian and Pusch Ridge in the quarterfinal round.

McKinney leads the team in scoring once again at 17.5 points an outing and he passed the 1,000 career scoring mark with three games left in the regular season and the junior led all scorers Friday night with 22 points but the scoring was difficult for both teams early on.

NW Christian (10-16) led 9-3 with 28.9 seconds left in the first quarter and it looked like this was going to be an upset early on but the Lions limited the Crusaders to two points in the second quarter and Pusch Ridge (20-6) went on a 19-2 run to take a 22-11 lead at the half. NW Christian cut the lead down to 28-25 with 2:15 left in the third and 35-27 to start the fourth quarter but that was the closest the Crusaders came the rest of the way as the Lions pulled away for the 55-37 victory.

McKinney had his 22 points, Santino Almazan had 11 and Benjamin Lambe added nine for Pusch Ridge. Lincoln Hubbard led NW Christian with 12.