Teagan Martin hit a 3-pointer to put Flagstaff up 12-9 with 5:51 left in the second quarter of the 4A state championship game held at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum Monday night and it looked like the Eagles had broken the elusive code on how to defeat the Salpointe Catholic Lancers. Seven of the first nine points for Flagstaff came off of some careless Lancer turnovers, and the Eagle offense was flying high, but Lancer standout Taliyah Henderson had other plans and her itinerary ended with a 65-48 win by Salpointe.

Henderson showed the Eagles why, as a freshman, she already has a couple Division I offers by pouring in six points in the next minute to put the Lancers up 15-12. Six points might not seem much in the ordinary flow of a game but her offensive outburst, combined with controlling the boards, sparked a 25-1 run and the Lancers never looked back. It was far from ordinary.

Henderson finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds and senior standout Kylee Callahan led the team with 19 points to go along with the 16 scored by junior guard Cambria Medina. Salpointe led 30-13 at the half, and it looked like a running clock might be needed sooner than later, but Flagstaff standout Gracelyn Nez also had other plans.

Nez collected 1,279 career kills in volleyball (top ten ever in the 4A Conference) and she scored 22 points against Salpointe Monday night to finish her basketball career with over 1,800 points and over 800 rebounds. Nez is simply playing at a higher level but her game-high scoring effort was not enough to overcome the Salpointe run.

Alyssa Harris added 14 points to go along with Nez but the team was only able to get within 11 points several times the rest of the way and Nez hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead down to 40-30 with 3:17 left in the third but the game was decided during the Lancer run.

Salpointe finished the year with a perfect 21-0 run in power-ranking games and things only look better from there with five freshman on the roster and Medina returning for her senior year. The Lancers lose Callahan to graduation along with Tessa Hastings (6 points, 7 rebounds) and Annika Arvayo (4 points, 4 rebounds) but this appears to be a program that is in the reload mode rather than rebuild,

Flagstaff (19-4) will have to replace Nez but head coach Tyrone Johnson will have plenty left on the bench after leading the Eagles to a state final for the first time since the program won it all in 1992. Salpointe head coach Joe Luevano led the program to a runner-up finish last year to Seton Catholic and it was the second runner-up finish for Salpointe since former ASU standout Sybil Dosty led the Lancers in 2003.

(Andy Morales/AZPreps365)