American Leadership Queen Creek is moving up a conference after this season.

It wouldn’t mind winning one more game before its 3A days end at least for the next two seasons. It picked the perfect place for its final 3A hurrah — the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the site of Saturday’s 3A final between ALA-Queen Creek and Sabino.

ALA-Queen Creek punched its ticket to the program’s first championship game after handily beating Gilbert Christian 62-39 Friday. The Queen Creek team got off to a quick start and never looked back.

The team’s Mr. Double-Double, Dyson Lighthall (22 points, 11 boards), was at it again in the low post.

“We’re excited,” ALA-Queen Creek coach Ryan McCurdy said. “We’re happy with the way the kids played. They played their butts off tonight and got it done. We are looking forward to playing another 32 minutes (Saturday.)”

While Lighthall was working near the paint, Devon Brooke (19 points) and Tyler Holmes (15 points) took care of business on the outside.

Brooke and Holmes each made four three-pointers. No. 3 seed ALA-Queen Creek (24-7) led 17-5 after the first quarter and opened the second period with two Holmes’ threes.

The ten seniors on the team are a motivated bunch. Their program was ruled ineligible last year for the postseason after a rule was violated two years ago.

“We’ve had a chip on our shoulder the whole season,” Lighthall said. “For two years we’ve been waiting for this moment.”