Basha made it to the semifinal round at the highest level of competition in 2011, but that was followed by a decade of heartache that included seven first-round playoff losses, but that all changed Saturday night at Sun Devil Stadium when the Bears held on to defeat Saguaro 28-21 to win the first state championship in program history and the team did it in the Open Division, a division created for the best of the best.

Basha Head coach Chris McDonald was hired in the summer of 2019 and that first year was rough with a 4-7 record but something started to click in the third week of 2020 and his Bears are now riding a 28-3 streak including wins this year over 6A power Salpointe (46-14), 5A runner-up Cactus (58-0), Open Division power Hamilton (26-23), two wins over Open Division semifinalist Chandler (14-7 and 13-0), 6A semifinalist Casteel (42-14) and now Saguaro.

By contrast, Saguaro is third all-time in the AIA with 16 championship appearances and second all-time with 13 state championships, including seven from current head coach Jason Mohns. Mohns had an even more impressive streak with state championships in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 to go along with his Open Division title last year. He had an incredible streak of 90 wins versus two losses against teams from Arizona and that streak is now at 116-9 with one third of those losses coming this year, a year in which he might have found more doubters in his abilities than the ones who might have forced an Open Division to handle his earlier success.

Basha (12-1) came in as the No. 2 seed and Saguaro (9-4) the No. 5 seed. Top seeded Liberty (11-1) was the local and national favorite to win it all and the Lions beat four of the Open Division participants quite easily in the regular season by an average score of 35-10 including a 35-7 drubbing of Basha on Oct. 7 and a 26-17 win over Saguaro a week earlier. It took an impressive effort from Saguaro senior quarterback Devon Dampier in the Open Division semifinal round  last week to end the championship hopes of the Lions.

Down 42-28 to Liberty with 11 minutes left, Dampier engineered two late touchdown drives, with the last needing 94 yards plus a two-point conversion for the improbable 43-42 victory to set up the final with Basha Saturday night where Dampier was called upon again.

The Sabercat defense forced a turnover on downs with 2:03 remaining, down 28-21 with the goal line some 68 yards away. With no timeouts, Dampier led his team down to the Bash 20 with about 15 seconds left and he found Joseph Clark open but his catch was just beyond the endline. His pass with six seconds left on forth down fell incomplete and the Bears on the field took a couple of seconds to realize what their fans already knew in the stands, they were state champions.

Senior RB Deshaun Buchanan put Basha up 7-0 on a long run with 4:01 left in the first quarter but Jaedon Matthews thrilled the Sabercat crowd with 90-yard blast down the sidelines on the ensuing kickoff to tie the game up 7-7.

Buchanan scored again with 11:39 left in the half to put Basha up 14-7 but Dampier answered with his own scoring run to tie the game up 14-14 with 6:27 left until the break. The Bears had one final drive that resulted in a field goal attempt but the Sabercats came up with a block to end the half with a 14-14 tie.

The Bears drove down to the Sabercat 17 midway through the third quarter but a holding call, an intentional downing call and an illegal motion penalty forced a punt at the 45 but the Basha defense came up big with an interception to give the Bears the ball back at the 31 where Miles Lockhart ended a short drive with a touchdown to give Basha a 21-14 lead with 52 seconds left in the third. Buchanan scored his third TD of the game a few minutes later to put Basha up 28-14 with 10:20 left.

Dampier scored to cut the lead down to 28-21 and the Saguaro defense held to get him the ball back with 2:11 left but, as noted before, there just wasn’t enough magic to get it done again and Basha held the trophy up for the first time in school history.

(Andy Morales/AZPreps365)