Moving down from the 6A to the 5A Conference this season didn’t seem to matter to Millennium’s players.

What they did question, Millennium coach Courtland Rojeck said, was whether the rivalry with 6A’s Valley Vista would continue. Rojeck and Valley Vista coach Rachel Matakas share a mutual respect for one another, and they weren’t about to let Arizona’s best big school basketball rivalry for girls end.

To add some spice to the annual West Valley gathering this season, the teams agreed to move their December meeting to the end of the regular season. Both teams are in the hunt for an automatic state tournament berth in their conferences.

On Thursday, they each gave a good showing in front of a packed Valley Vista gym. Valley Vista rallied from a 10-point second quarter deficit, but couldn’t do it again in the second half, when Millennium pulled away for a 64-51 victory.

“In the rivalry we’ve had over the past decade, that was one of the oddest games we’ve had,” Rojeck said. “I’ll give the refs credit. They called it really tight on both teams. I was just talking to coach Matakas and told her that I think every single one of our starters was out for an extended period of time in the game with 2, 3, 4 fouls. But it was a great battle. You can’t beat this game.

“You see the gym here. Both schools take so much pride in (the rivalry).”

Millennium’s bench, a strength for the squad this year, stepped up while the starters sat, allowing the team to improve to 20-4 overall.

It’s the eighth year in a row that Millennium has reached the 20-win total under Rojeck.

Valley Vista is 21-4 with a young team, and the two-time champ is gearing up to defend its 6A crown with two more games left in it regular season. Moving the Millennium-Valley Vista game to the end of the regular season also served as a good tune up for both teams just before the postseason.

“You can’t beat this environment,” said Rojeck about Thursday’s game. “This environment is bigger than what you would see at a state championship.”