Tri-State Invitational: Jacob Heese scores 28 at Desert Oasis routs Arizona opponent

Desert Oasis coach Joe Bedowitz knew the way to stop Gilbert Christian (Arizona) was to harass its guards and prevent them from finding senior center Miles Lightfoot under the basket.

The ploy worked, as the Diamondbacks used a stingy press to defend its home court in the Platinum Division semifinals of the Tri-State Invitational on Thursday night, and rout the Knights, 74-34.

Jacob Heese scored19 of his 28 points in the first half and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Desert Oasis.

Nate Van had 16 points with three 3-pointers, and Kamari Burnside chipped in with 11 points. Felix Reeves added seven points, seven rebounds and six blocks.

The Diamondbacks will face Hurricane (Utah) in Friday’s championship game at 3 p.m. at Desert Oasis.

“Basically, we said coming out we have to be the more physical team,” Bedowitz said. “We knew that we were dealing with a 6-foot-8 kid, and it’s always been our weakness, defending the bigger bodies. We knew we had to swarm the perimeter to make it difficult on their guards to get him the ball.

“Once they got the ball inside our plan was simply to foul him because we knew he wasn’t a good free throw shooter.”

Lightfoot managed to get just nine points, seven rebounds and nine blocked shots. He made it to the free throw line just once, and went 1-for-2 from the line.

Gilbert Christian, the defending Class 2A state champions from Arizona, couldn’t find a rhythm against Desert Oasis’ swarming defense, committing eight turnovers in the first quarter and finishing 14 of 32 from the field for the game.

The Knights couldn’t stop Desert Oasis’ foursome on the offensive end, either in transition or in the half court.

“There’s very few teams that we play that are able to take away all four (offensive weapons) at the same time,” Bedowitz said. “We’ve had a couple of games where all four of those guys have scored more than 20 points. It’s part of the design of what we do, to create for everybody, so when they take one angle away, we go at a different angle.”

The Diamondbacks turned four first-quarter steals into highlight dunks — by Heese and Burnside — while opening a 21-11 lead.

Gilbert Christian closed within seven early in the second quarter, but the Diamondbacks turned up the pressure and closed the half on a 15-0 run to head into the locker room with a 44-22 halftime lead.

Silverado 73, Basic 71 — The Skyhawks erased a 20-point deficit led by Martell Williams, who scored 22, and Caden Farley, who added 19 points, to beat the Wolves.

Trailing by 12 in the fourth quarter, Silverado used an 11-0 run to seize momentum from the Wolves.

Basic’s Geoff Faries led all scorers with 27 points, and Peter Nelson chipped in 19.

Rancho 65, Mountain View (Utah) 60 — James Brown scored eight of his 12 points in overtime to lead the Rams past the Bruins.

Tejai Washington led Rancho with 20 points.

Jacob Schow had a game-high 24 points for Mountain View.

Rancho 71, Sunrise Mountain 64 — Playing in its second overtime of the day, the Rams outscored the Miners, 11-5, in the extra period to pull out the win.

James Brown led Rancho with 22 points, and Jahleel Stevens added 16.

Sunrise Mountain’s Dalvin Brown led all scorers with 23 points.

Virgin Valley 50, Lincoln County 46 — Cade Anderson scored a game-high 14 points, wand the Bulldogs staved off a fourth-quarter rally by the Lynx.

Koden Tietjen added 10 points for Virgin Valley,

Alex Vincent led the Lynx with 10 points.

Shadow Ridge 65, Spring Valley 47 —Anthony Jaramillo scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Mustangs over the Grizzlies.

Keelan Wickersham led Spring Valley with 15 points.

Desert Oasis 94, Cibola (Ariz.) 64 — Jacob Heese led all scorers with 37 points, including 19 in the second half where the Diamondbacks outscored the Raiders 57-35, to pull away.

Kamari Burnside added 21 points for Desert Oasis, and Nate Van had 10.

Ivan Galindo had 33 points for Cibola.

Basic 55, Virgin Valley 19 — Joseph Ramirez hit six 3-pointers to lead all scorers with 18 points to help the Wolves run away from the Bulldogs.

The Wolves opened up a 38-10 lead by halftime, and Geoff Faries had 10 points.

Will Barnum led Virgin Valley with seven points.

Spring Valley 55, Wooster 24 — Jahlani Blair scored 12 points, and Anthony Dodson added 10 to lead the Grizzlies over the Colts.

Seven of Spring Valley’s 22 field goals were threes.

Benjamin Zelisse-Stewart led the Colts with 15 points.

Silverado 60, Provo (Utah) 55 — Martell Williams scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Skyhawks over the Bulldogs.

Trevon Martin added 12 points for Silverado.

Mason Miles led Provo with 16 points.

Shadow Ridge 44, Lowry 29 — Garin MacFarlane led the Mustangs with nine points, and Richard Box and Kion Thomas each added eight in the win over the Buckaroos.

Kyle Sappington led Lowry with six points.

Gilbert Christian (Ariz.) 59, Lincoln County 43 — Nick Pappas led the Knights with 18 points in the Knights’ win over the Lynx.

Lincoln County got 15 points from Kobe Walker, while Noah Smith added 13.

Miles Lightfoot added 16 for the Knights.

Hurricane (Utah) 75, Sunrise Mountain 28 — Led by a 3-point barrage, the Tigers used a 33-point second quarter to put the game away.

Jackson Last hit six 3-pointers en route to a 22-point performance to lead Hurricane.

Tyree Hayes led Sunrise Mountain with 11 points.