Less than a week after their boys soccer teams met in the Open Division second round, the girls basketball teams at Sunnyside and Salpointe will do the same Thursday night under similar circumstances with the outcome.
The winner will stay in the Open Division until it either wins the title or gets eliminated.
The loser will shift to its conference state tournament — Sunnyside in 6A or Salpointe in 4A.
The 17th-seeded Blue Devils (26-2) will play at the top-seeded Lancers (25-4) at 7 p.m.
The teams feature two of the top young coaches in the state — Sunnyside’s Justin Delgado, 37, and Salpointe’s Joseph Luevano, 44 — in their fifth season as head coach at their schools.
Delgado is 96-32 with the Blue Devils and 120-41 overall (including his 24-9 season as the Baboquivari boys coach in 2019-20).
Luevano is 117-21 with the Lancers, including earning the 4A state championships in 2021-22 and last season.
Delgado was not on the bench when Sunnyside defeated No. 16 Pueblo 58-52 on Tuesday night because he was ejected in the previous game last week, when the Blue Devils finished the regular season at Tucson High.
Ricardo Medina filled in for head coach Justin Delgado, who served a one-game suspension after his ejection at Tucson High in the regular-season finale last week. Medina’s daughter Dora had a key 3-point play late in the game to keep the Blue Devils ahead in their 58-52 win at… pic.twitter.com/Z9TAGWiQgW
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) February 19, 2025
Sunnyside had Ricardo Medina as the acting head coach and Delgado’s father Pete on the bench directing the players.
The game was the last for longtime referee Cleo Robinson, grandfather of Bijan Robinson who will no longer officiate varsity games after a 47-year career.
The Blue Devils trailed 21-13 after the first quarter but started to take control of the game in the second quarter, outscoring 17-5 behind seven points from Janae Pritchett.
“It was awesome,” Medina said of the experience. “It was the same thing coming from me, instead of Justin. The girls listened. We told them, ‘Together, we’re going to thrive.’ And we did.”
It was an unusual night in terms of head coach availability.
Pueblo coach Izzy Galindo sat on the bench but was beset by head and stomach pains after undergoing a colonoscopy earlier in the day. Assistant coach Mariah Clark, a former Pueblo and Pima College player, and fellow assistant Josiah Lopez managed the Warriors with Galindo’s input.
Mariah Clark, who played under Izzy Galindo at Pueblo and Todd Holthaus at Pima, coached the Warriors tonight with Galindo feeling ill from anesthesia effects from a colonoscopy earlier today. Galindo was on the bench and sat in his seat throughout the game, providing guidance in… pic.twitter.com/EbDbl0msvs
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) February 19, 2025
Pritchett finished with 12 points, matching the output of Esabella Barajas. Angelique Yanez led Sunnyside with 13 points.
Medina’s daughter Dora scored five of her nine points in the fourth quarter, including a pivotal 3-point play.
Asia Clark, a sophomore who is Mariah Clark’s sister, fouled out on the play with 3:23 left. She finished with seven points. After Dora Medina made the free throw to cap the 3-point play, Sunnyside led 53-47.
“It affected us a lot; she’s our main defensive player,” Mariah Clark said of her sister. “She handles the ball and helps Sara (Galindo) and America (Cazares) out a lot … we needed her defensive-wise, rebounding.
“Momentum kind of loses when Asia’s out of the game. It was tough.”
Cazares finished with 28 points to increase her career scoring total to 1,931. With Pueblo shifting to the 5A state tournament, the Warriors will likely have to advance to the semifinals for Cazares to eclipse 2,000 points in her career before the end of the season.
Brooklyn Espinoza had nine points and 18 rebounds for the Warriors. A sophomore, Espinoza is well on her way to 1,000 career rebounds with 568.
Pueblo never could take the lead against Sunnyside in the waning minutes because of Sunnyside’s scoring balance and timely shooting.
Janae Pritchett of Sunnyside has emerged as one of the top players in the state. A senior leader for the Blue Devils, she had 12 points in the Open Division first-round victory over Pueblo. pic.twitter.com/WrVXdkBf3v
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) February 19, 2025
Annabelle Quiroga, a captain of the team despite being a freshman, hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to stave off the Warriors. She also made a shot beyond the arc in the third quarter.
Delgado and Luevano have helped develop talent this season to make up for unexpected personnel losses.
Sunnyside lost sharpshooting guard Ylena Gross to Bella Vista Prep in Scottsdale right after the school year started. She made 52 3-pointers and averaged 10.8 points a game as a freshman last season.
Two of Luevano’s top seniors — Taliyah Henderson and Jordan Watts — each suffered season-ending knee injuries before the season started. Henderson is headed to North Carolina and Watts, daughter of Sunnyside legend Jermaine Watts, will play at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.
In Salpointe’s 74-28 win over Cave Creek Cactus Shadows on Tuesday in a first-round game of the Open Division, Allison Even had 17 points and five assists.
Hannah Williams finished with 16 points, Sidney Anderson had 11 points, eight rebounds and six steals and Jolee Nelson had 11 points and four steals.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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