Players of the Desert Pines High basketball team, from left, AJ Pullins, Milos Uzan, Deshawn Wiley and Cimarron Conriguez take a portrait during the Las Vegas Sun’s Media Day at Red Rock Resort and Casino on Oct. 30, 2018.
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019 | 9:50 p.m.
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The hotshot team full of young stars is supposed to submit to a relentless attack from a determined foe with a roster full of battle-tested veterans if sports tropes are to be believed.
Desert Pines’ basketball team doesn’t buy into the narrative and refused to fall into the trap in a 49-46 victory over Arbor View in the Mountain Region championship Saturday night at Legacy High.
“We’ve had some games like that so we know what to do,” said Desert Pines freshman guard Milos Uzan, the Mountain Region tournament MVP.
“It’s like automatic for us,” added the Jaguars’ oldest rotation player, junior center Darnell Washington.
After a game dominated by defense and characterized by numerous lead changes, the Jaguars appeared to pull away early in the fourth quarter. They built a game-high seven-point lead courtesy of back-to-back 3-pointers by Uzan, who had 18 points on the night, and sophomore Cimarron Conriquez, who had 12 points.
But their work was only getting started. Led by the ignition of junior star Donovan Yap, who scored a game-high 22 points, the Aggies twice cut their deficit to a single possession.
Both times, the Jaguars bore down on defense to get decisive stops. They forced Yap into a one-handed runner from the top of the key at the buzzer that hit off the back iron to clinch the victory.
“Tonight we were just off (offensively) so we fell back on our defense,” Desert Pines coach Mike Uzan said. “Our guys love to defend, and that’s a big plus for high school kids.”
That’s not bad for a team that primarily relies on six players, with five of them being underclassmen. And the exception, Washington, has only played organized basketball for two years.
That didn’t stop the 6-foot-7, 255-pound Washington from terrorizing Arbor View, which has a rotation comprised of exclusively upperclassmen, inside. He wouldn’t give the Aggies anything inside, especially down the stretch, and finished with five blocks to go with six rebounds.
That helped Desert Pines overcome a night where they shot 37 percent as only Milos Uzan and Conriquez ever found a rhythm. With offense eluding them, usual sharpshooters sophomore Dayshawn Wiley and freshman Jamir Stephens instead stepped up on defense and were key contributors in holding Arbor View to 12-for-46 shooting from the field.
The Jaguars always seemed to work in perfect unison on the defensive end.
“They trust each other a lot for a young group of guys,” Mike Uzan said.
That makes the Jaguars dangerous as they look to complement 3A state championships from the past two years with a 4A trophy this season, after a South Final game against Bishop Gorman at 7 p.m. Monday at Valley High. Not to mention they’ve now won 16 straight games and gone 18-2 against local competition.
They’ve also done it in different ways to break from another stereotype about young teams. Desert Pines is capable of overwhelming opponents on offense — just ask Centennial, which fell to a 3-point barrage from the Jaguars in the Mountain semifinals — but they can also rely on defense to grind wins out.
That’s what it took against Arbor View, as Desert Pines proved it’s as tough as it is talented.
“It feels good but we’re trying to win state,” Milos Uzan said. “That’s our goal.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
