Mesa High's current girls basketball roster wasn't in kindergarten the last time a Jackrabbits' squad won a state playoff game. That was February of 2002 when Mesa defeated Deer Valley in the first round. And Friday night's start by the home team wasn't promising as evidenced by a 12-3 deficit with four minutes gone.

The llight came on, however, late in the second period and on through the finish as No. 5 Mesa took care of No. 12 Ironwood Ridge, 44-35, in a Division II round-of-16 contest at Jackrabbit Gym. Mesa (26-4) moves on to the quarterfinals Tuesday (Feb. 23) to face No. 13 Sahuaro at 2:30 p.m. at Gila River Arena. Sahuaro upended No. 4 Tucson, 65-60. Ironwood Ridge, who knocked off Desert Edge in the first round earlier this week, concluded its season 23-8.

A third-quarter surge by Mesa, accomplished with a patient attack in half court and taking fast breaks wehn they were there, brought the Jackabbbits back from a small halftime deficit. Senior guard Lesly Martinez scored all 12 of her points in the second half -- eight in the third period. Martinez sank a pair of threes in the quarter. The second one gave Mesa the lead for good at 28-25. Mesa took only seven shots in the quarter and made them all. None were by second-leading scorer Carley Turnbull, who did her damage in the other three quarters. Turnbull and junior Diamond Fuller paced all scorers with 13 points each.

"It was a battle,' Mesa coach Brock Landis said. "We started out in a 1-3-1 zone and they hit a couple big threes. That got us out of it and we switched to man-to-man. We played better defensively from that point on."

Mesa, with three successive winning seasons in a row under Landis, trailed 12-6 after one quarter. The Jackabbits allowed only 23 points the rest of the way. Landis' message at halftime was to keep up the defense and limit Ironwood Ridge's shots.

"We hammered them at half on crashing the boards," Landis said. "We like to spread it out, and that made them defend us on the perimeter. We got better shots in the second half. We had too many bad ones the first half."

Ironwood Ridge came out sizziling making 5 of its first 7 shots. The Nighthawks leading scorer -- senior Natalie Bartle hit and early three and had a couple others rattle in and out. Bartle made one more three the rest of the game It came in the first minute of the third period and was the last of her eight points for the game. That was half her season average. Fellow senior Lexy Ram led Ironwood Ridge with 12 points.

Ram scored her last three poitns early in the final period to pull Ironwood Ridge within 36-33 with 5:45 to play. Seven Ironwood Ridge turnovers over the final five minutes and having o foul the final two minutes allowed Mesa to win going away. Martinez and Turnbull combined to make six free throws in the final 1:54.