It wasn’t an upset on paper but it sure felt that way when No. 2 Salpointe Catholic walked off the court Wednesday night with a 42-29 victory over No. 3 Seton Catholic in the 4A Conference semifinal round in Tucson. Why?

The Sentinels played in the championship round in 11 of the last 12 years with the only “hiccup” being a 41-34 loss to Flowing Wells in the 2013 semifinals. A semifinal finish would normally be a dream season for almost every other program but Seton Catholic has an incredible 12 state championships under head coach Karen Self.  Still, a semifinal finish this winter was probably one of the most impressive coaching jobs of Self’s career.

Self led the Sentinels to a 70-40 win over Sahuaro to win the 2020 state championship and her squad beat Salpointe 70-62 to win it all again last year but that team lost Amanda Barcello to graduation and Lexi McNabb left the program for a basketball prep school in Canada. Barcello is playing for BYU and McNabb will be playing college ball for Buffalo. That’s a lot to replace.

The scoring shifted over to senior guard Sasha Daniel and she responded as a true champion with 16.4 points a game to help lead Seton Catholic to a 17-3 record in ranking games but she found things difficult in Tucson Wednesday night.

Salpointe (20-0) broke out to a 10-1 lead on Seton Catholic in the first quarter and that was pretty much all the margin and space the Lancers needed the rest of the way. The Sentinels went 2 for 10 from the free throw line in the first half and that added burden allowed the Lancers some leeway on costly turnovers at their own end.

Cambria Medina hit a bucket to put Salpointe up 19-7 with 41.2 seconds left in the first half but Amelie Cartagena hit a three-pointer 30 seconds later to cut the lead down to 19-10 at the half. Caitlyn Benally scored 7 points to cut the lead down to 25-18 with 2:42 left in the third quarter but the Lancers went on a 13-2 run, fueled by back-to-back 3’s from freshmen Taliyah Henderson and Hannah Williams.

The Sentinels were able to chip away at the 38-20 deficit but time was moving too fast for a complete comeback and Salpointe held on for the 42-29 victory. Benally led Seton Catholic with 7 points, Daniel added 6 and Cartagena scored 5.

Henderson was hampered with foul trouble but Williams stepped up and scored 9 points against Seton Catholic. Tessa Hastings led all scorers with 15, Kylee Callahan added 7 and Medina scored 6. Henderson scored 5 points.

“Hannah has always been that person for us,” Salpointe head coach Joe Luevano said. “She does the little things for us that doesn't show up on a stat sheet. She's the gritty one that gets tips that needs to rebound. She's the one sliding over and closing off the lane and stopping penetration. She doesn't panic and turn the ball over. It's incredible what she's capable of and she's barely scratching the surface.”

Due to weather complications, the other semifinal will be played Wednesday night between No. 9 Shadow Mountain and No. 5 Flagstaff. The winner of that game will play Salpointe in the 4A state championship game slated for Monday, Feb. 28.

Tessa hastings. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)