Don Ketchum
Former Staff Writer, AZPreps365.com

South girls down Marcos to set up hoops rematch with Seton

February 21, 2014 by Don Ketchum, AZPreps365


The girls basketball team from Phoenix South Mountain defeated the talented team from Chandler Seton Catholic once this season. Now the opportunity is there for the Lady Jaguars to try to do it again.

The eighth-seeded Lady Jaguars earned a rematch with top-seeded Seton with a 63-53 second-round victory over No. 9 Tempe Marcos de Niza on Friday night (Feb. 21) at South.

South Mountain (26-3) will meet Seton in a Division II quarterfinal game on Tuesday (Feb. 25) at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale. A start time will be announced later. Marcos de Niza finished 23-7.

Friday night’s game was pretty much even through three quarters, and South outscored Marcos 26-17 in the fourth.

Senior Jazmon Jacobs keyed the outburst by scoring 10 of her 13 points in the first 4:07 of the fourth.

“She did the same thing on senior night (win over Scottsdale Saguaro). She wasn’t about to let the team lose,’’ said South Mountain coach John Cano.

Damaris Moore led South with 20 points and Najiyah Pack had 17.

Cano said he knew his team would be facing a similar team, with decent height and a long wingspan.

“We wanted to exploit them on the transition and with our rebounding,’’ Cano said. “But we turned the ball over way too much in the first half.’’

The Jaguars’ defense also tightened up in the fourth quarter.

“All week, we focused on defense (in practice),’’ Cano said. “So when it came to the fourth quarter, we said, “All right. We’re going to see what we’re made of.’ ’’

South helped itself at the free-throw line. Marcos did not.

South made more free throws (31 of 43) than Marcos had attempts (29). The Padres only made 15.

“It’s hard to beat a team when it shoots close to 45 free throws,’’ said Marcos coach Jermaine Whitaker. “But we didn’t shoot as well as we needed to. They were the better team tonight.’’

Jorie Mayfield led the Padres with 24 points, and Kaelin Shaffer added 9.