Palo Verde continues playoff run, will be surprise team at state tournament

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Monday, Feb. 23, 2015 | 9:50 p.m.

The Palo Verde High basketball team wasn’t ranked in the preseason top 10. Now, the Panthers are two games away from winning the state championship.

Palo Verde’s Ja Morgan scored 10 of his team-high 21 points in the first-quarter today against Valley in the state play-in game, and the Panthers kept proving doubters wrong with a 71-61 victory to advance to Thursday’s state semifinals at the Orleans Arena.

They are without question the surprise team in this year’s four-team state event. Well, maybe not.

“We have been rebuilding for the past couple of years, so everybody overlooked us,” Palo Verde coach Paul Sanchez said. “I know internally we knew what we had. We have been talking about going to state all year.”

Palo Verde was supposed to lose last week in the Sunset Regional semifinals to Northwest League champion Centennial and Troy Brown, one of the nation’s best players.

Instead, Palo Verde built a comfortable double-digit lead and hung on for a three-point win. A similar scenario played out today.

Valley was expected to win, but Palo Verde started strong in building a 17-9 lead after the first quarter. Palo Verde kept Valley from getting out in transition to neutralize the Vikings’ speed and athleticism. Plus, Valley’s players appeared slowed, possibly still recovering from a triple overtime loss four days earlier.

With less than three minutes to play in the third quarter, Palo Verde led by 20 points.

But, just like the Centennial game, Palo Verde nearly squandered the big advantage.

Valley’s Cameron Burton and Darrion Daniels didn’t go down without a fight, taking turns making baskets to cut the Valley deficit to 63-59 with about two minutes to play. Burton scored a game-high 22 points and Daniels had 17.

“We were able to score and make them take the ball out of bounds,” Sanchez said of slowing down Valley’s up-tempo attack. “They made a little run in the second half when we missed some shots and were standing around on offense. They got some steals and were able to outrun us for some layups.”

Palo Verde’s Taylor Miller scored his team’s last eight points — including going 6 of 6 from the foul line — and added a blocked shot on a Valley 3-point attempt in the final minute to secure the win.

Miller finished with 15 points for Palo Verde, Grant Dressler scored 19 and Connor Lemmon added 12.

The Panthers advance to play Sunrise Region champion Canyon Springs at 4:40 Thursday at the Orleans Arena in the state semifinals. This is the program’s fifth state tournament appearance in nearly two decades of existence. They won the 2004 state championship and lost in the state championship game in 2003 to Cheyenne and 2009 to Bishop Gorman.

Returning to the title game will have to include another upset. Canyon Springs, who lost in the state championship game last season, is the three-time Sunrise champions.

Being an underdog, though, is a spot that doesn’t seem to bother Palo Verde.

“I knew we had the kids to do it,” Sanchez said.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21