Jaguars clear roadblock

One phrase from Desert Pines boys basketball coach Chancellor Davis said it all on Wednesday night.

"My head is running right now," Davis said following his team's 78-70 road win over Silverado in the Sunrise Region quarterfinals.

It's no wonder. A week ago, the Jaguars had clinched the Northeast Division title and a first-round home game in the Sunrise Region playoffs.

On Friday, the school began investigating to see if it had used an ineligible player during the season. On Tuesday, the team was forced to forfeit three league wins, moving the Jaguars to the No. 3 seed in the Northeast and delaying the entire Sunrise tournament.

But a strong second-half showing on Wednesday put Desert Pines back where it expected to be all along: the Sunrise semifinals.

"It was just another one of those roadblocks," Davis said. "We've had many roadblocks, but it boils down to persevering. You're going to have these in life, so just stay with it and get through it.

"That's what we did tonight. We lived to see another day."

The Jaguars (19-9) will play Eldorado (21-8) at 5:45 tonight at Liberty in the Sunrise semifinals.

The Jaguars trailed 36-34 at the half but held Silverado to 14-for-38 shooting in the second half (36.8 percent).

"At halftime that's what we pretty much said: Focus on defense, don't worry about offense," Davis said. "Defense is going to take care of us, and it did."

The Jaguars forced 10 second-half turnovers, turning them into 10 points. And they managed to turn up the defensive pressure without fouling.

Desert Pines had only three second-half fouls, and Silverado didn't shoot a free throw after halftime.

"We only had three team fouls the whole second half, and we were pretty aggressive, so that was pretty good defense," Davis said. "And we kept them off the boards, too."

Desert Pines outrebounded Silverado 28-20 in the second half. The Jaguars totaled 23 second-chance points.

Tyler Larson led the Jaguars with 12 rebounds, and teammate Cliff Harrell had 10.

Wade Collie had 28 points and 23 rebounds for Silverado (24-5). The rest of the Skyhawks grabbed 17 boards.

All five Desert Pines starters scored in double figures, led by Pierre Jackson's 22 points. Harrell scored 14, Larson and Reggie Shaw 13 each and Chris Perry 12.

Collie had 17 points at halftime before Desert Pines focused on slowing him.

"We said we were going to focus on him," Davis said. "That was pretty much Chris Perry's responsibility, and he came up big."

James Lata added 21 points for the Skyhawks.

• Eldorado 81, Coronado 51 -- At Eldorado, Mitrell Clark had 28 points and seven steals, and Charles White had 20 points and 11 rebounds to lift the Sundevils.

Marcus Moreland added 13 points and Ariel Bagget 11 for Eldorado, which enjoyed leads of 23-8 after one quarter and 43-21 at halftime.

Charlie Wakefield had 18 points for the Cougars.

• Foothill 58, Las Vegas 44 -- At Foothill, Kadeem Minor and Evan Roquemore each scored 17 points to lead the Falcons past the Wildcats.

Aamahd Franklin had 18 points and Tony Eackles 12 for Las Vegas.

• Liberty 59, Canyon Springs 47 -- At Canyon Springs, Kenneth Peters had 11 points and Milos Knezevic 10 in the fourth quarter as the Patriots rallied to down the Pioneers.

Knezevic totaled 22 points and 13 rebounds and Peters 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Cameron Peters added 13 points for Liberty.

Terence Stanley scored 15 points and Michael Thompson 14 for Canyon Springs.