Catalina Foothills beats Centennial to 5A title punch

March 20, 2021 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Catalina Foothills Trace Comeau (3) defends Centennial's Jayson Petty (14) in 59-45 CFH victory. (azPreps365 photo)

Catalina Foothills and Centennial were both vying for their schools'  first boys basketball championship on Saturday afternooon. Catalina Foothills got the jump on Centennial and never let go in posting a 59-45 victory in the 5A title contest at Mesquite High School.

Catalina Foothills (19-1) received a wire-to-wire performance from senior Trace Comeau in winning. Comeau scored 17 points distributing scoring evenly across the game. He added six rebounds and four assists.

All six players who scored for Catalina FH totaled at least five points. Post Ben Pinckney picked up for foul-plagued starting center Will Menaugh and tallied 11 points in reserve and seven rebounds. Size and strength was on the Falcons' side  as they piled up a 38-14 edge in points in the paint. Better shots resulted in CFH makiing 52 percent of its shots to just 29 percent for Centennial.

Starters Cody Blumenthal and Dylan Hadley scored nine points each, Carson Peabody 8 and Menaugh 5.

Catalina Foothills never trailed. The Falcons led 14-9 after the first quarter, pushed their advantage to 26-18 at halftime and 41-30 after three quarters.

Centennial (18-2) made one run at Catalina Foothills the first half of the third period, led by its top scorer Jake Lifgren. The lead was cut to 31-25 at the 4:32 mark, but an 8-2 run pushed it to double digits the rest of the way. Lifgren scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half.