Canyon Springs smothers Foothill with pressure defense, 79-56

Foothill senior guard Colin Curi suffered a cut on his right elbow during the third quarter Tuesday, and there was a five-minute delay to wipe the blood off the floor.

Canyon Springs’ boys basketball team smelled blood well before that, though.

The visiting Pioneers turned up the defensive pressure in the second quarter and overwhelmed Foothill’s inexperienced ball-handlers en route to a 79-56 victory in the first round of the Division I Sunrise Region tournament.

“We just wanted to continue to pressure the ball. We knew if we continued to pressure them, we know that’s going to create turnovers,” Canyon Springs coach Freddie Banks said. “We just have to keep pushing. It’s not going to be easy to pressure teams like this all the time, but we just tried to take advantage of it tonight.”

D’Quan Crockett had 28 points, and Jordan Davis added 23 points, four rebounds and four steals for Canyon Springs (17-10), which forced the Falcons into 32 turnovers.

The Pioneers meet Las Vegas, the top seed from the Northeast League, in the Sunrise semifinals at 4:40 p.m. Thursday at Liberty. Canyon Springs lost its two league games against Las Vegas by an average of 22 points.

Foothill (21-7) led 22-20 when point guard Kevin Woodland picked up his second foul and left the game with 6:39 remaining in the second quarter. By the time he returned with 2:40 left in the quarter, the Pioneers led by six points and seized all the momentum.

Crockett converted a three-point play to give Canyon Springs a 28-26 advantage, and he found Davis for an alley-oop dunk to put the Pioneers ahead 30-26. The Falcons committed 10 turnovers in the second quarter, and Canyon Springs closed on a 16-3 run to take a 39-29 halftime lead.

“We wanted to pressure anyway, regardless of whether their starter was in or not,” Banks said. “We tried to get them out of their rhythm, because once they get in their rhythm, it’s hard to stop them.”

The Pioneers ended the third quarter on an 11-1 spurt to take a 59-36 lead, and Crockett’s coast-to-coast drive gave Canyon Springs its biggest lead at 77-45 midway through the fourth. Crockett finished 10-for-19 from the floor to go with six rebounds.

“D’Quan has really showed his game now,” Banks said. “He’s starting to listen to what I’m telling him, and that’s play basketball. He did well tonight.”

Channel Banks had 10 points, and Maurice Hunter finished with 11 rebounds for Canyon Springs.

Torrance Littles led Foothill with 14 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots. Eric Johnson had 12 points in the fourth quarter when the game had been decided, and Curi scored 11.

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.