MIca Mountain. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

No. 12 Catalina Foothills senior Clara Mae Hager made six three pointers in the third quarter to help the Falcons erase a 23-19 deficit at the half and the team went on to beat No. 12 Mica Mountain 70-64 Tuesday night at home to advance to the second round of the Open Division. The Falcons will travel to play at No. 5 Pinnacle Thursday night in the second round of the Open Division and Mica Mountain will move over to the 4A state championship set to begin on Thursday, Feb. 27.

Pinnacle (17-2 in ranking games) beat No. 28 Horizon 57-28 in the first round to set up the match with Catalina Foothills (17-2). The winner of the second round game will advance to the Open Division quarterfinal round and the loser will return to their respective conference tournaments. Pinnacle competes in the 6A Conference and Catalina Foothills in the 5A Conference. Mica Mountain (13-6) will most likely host an opponent that will be decided from the play-in tournament taking place Thursday night.

Mica Mountain led 15-11 after one and 21-13 with 5:15 left in the first half but Catalina Foothills went on a 10-2 run to tie the game up at 23-23 with 7:25 left in the third quarter with Hager making a three pointer to give the Falcons 23 points. Hager made two more threes and Kayanna Chief added two more and the Falcons went up 37-27 with 4:15 left in the quarter.

The Thunder bolts battled back and Bella Webb made a deep shot with 1:53 left to cut the lead back down to 39-36. Hager made another three but Amaris Biancuzzo and Webb cut the lead to 42-40 with 53.3 seconds left. It looked like the Thunderbolts were going to retake the lead but Haeger made two three pointers in the final 34 seconds and Mercy Martinez scored with 7:25 left in the game to give Catalina Foothills another big lead at 50-40.

The Falcons could not shake the Thunderbolts with Ne'vaeh Verette scoring 12 points down the stretch to help cut the lead down to 66-64 with 32.4 seconds left in the game but Hager hit on four straight free throws for the 70-64 margin.

Hager finished with 37 points, Chief added 22 and Martiez scored eight for Catalina Foothills. Biancuzzo led Mica Mountain with 21, Verette added 18 and Webb scored 12.