The Basha-Mesa High boys basketball semifinal  turned out to be the defensive struggle everyone anticipated. So who got the better of it?

No. 2 Mesa when it counted. The Jackrabbits were strongest in the second and fourth quarters Friday night and posted a 50-35 victory over No. 3 Basha in a Division I clash at Grand Canyon University.

Mesa (25-4) is back in a championship game for the first time since 2004 when it prevailed over Desert Vista. Mesa matches up against No. 8 Sunnyslope, a 46-43 winner over Gilbert, on Monday (Feb. 29) at 8 p.m at Gila River Arena. Basha closed out its season matching its longest postseason run. Basha also reached the semis in 2008, losing to eventual champ Desert Vista.

Mesa's defense, led as usual by 6-foot senior guard David Cummard, held Basha to two points in the second period when it pushed a small fisrt-quarter lead to 11 at the break. Basha made a run late in the third period to early in the fourth with a rash of threes from Terrell Brown, Antwan Ross-Jones and Brennan Davis. Mesa's lead was down to 37-33 with 6:10 left. But other than a putback by Devin Kirby with 4:19 left, Basha did not score again.

Cummard's contribution in this one didn't stop with his defense. He scored 10 points, led the team in rebounding with seven, assists with three and tied for the best night in steals with three.

"David was big tonight," Mesa coach Shane Burcar said. "He made two threes early. We don't want handcuffs on guys. We want them all to be a (offensive) player."

Cummard picked up the slack for leading scorer Drew Hatch, who suffered through a tough first half offensively. Drew Hatch netted only three points in the first 16 minutes. He managed to match his brother, sophomore Mark, with a team-high 13 points by game's end. Neither Hatch enjoyed  good shooting stats, combiining to shoot 37 percent (10 of 27). 

Mesa, like Hamilton on the girls side of  D-I, has been hurt by the loss of a key player to injury. The Jackrabbits have filled the hole left by a knee injury to Darius Goudeau with DJ Henderson and Joban Green stepping up on different nights. Green scored four points in the game, added five rebounds and made a nifty reverse layup after Basha pulled within 39-35 with under four minutes to play. That started an 11-0 run to finish and clinch the title-game berth.

"Joban played 24 minutes the other night and that's the most he's played," Burcar said. "We haven't been able to devleop our bench much with so many tough games and the power-rating games being so important. We've had guys step up."

Basha had balanced scoring, but none from its bench. Brown led with 10 points, Ross-Jones had eight and Gabe McGlothan and Devin Kirby chipped in seven apiece. McGlothan led  the Bears in rebounding with seven.