Salpointe beat Flowing Wells on the road Thursday night 55-40 to open up region play for both squads. Salpointe (4-2) entered the night ranked No. 12 in the 4A Conference and Flowing Wells (8-1) was No. 5 with the next set of rankings set to be released on Friday at noon. The Lancers won the 4A state championship last year and the Caballeros took second place in the 5A Conference but the reconfiguration in the offseason placed both power programs in the 4A Kino Region along with No. 2 Pueblo (10-0) and No. 3 Sahuaro (9-0) making it one of the most difficult regions in the state.

Salpointe jumped out to a 7-0 lead but a bucket from Ayanna DeJesus and a 3-point shot from Navine Mallon closed the gap to 7-5 with 5:14 left in the first quarter. The Caballeros were unable to score over the next six minutes and Salpointe scored 16 straight points to go up 23-5 after one.

Flowing Wells center/forward Sydney Capen left the game during that run due to an injury and the Caballeros took advantage of opportunities on the inside on both ends of the court. Salpointe senior guard Bria Medina scored a game-high 26 points in the contest and she was a steady presence on the court with even play throughout the game including connecting on eight free throws down the stretch to help stop a Flowing Wells run that cut the lead down from 39-18 with 3:47 left in the third to 49-36 with 1:48 left in the game.

Salpointe sophomore Taliyah Henderson added 17 points, sophomore guard Allison Even finished with 10 points and Hannah Williams scored a bucket. Flowing Wells junior Kayla Bailey led her team with 12 points, DeJesus added 10, Mallon scored seven, Capen scored six and Nevaeh Urenda finished with five.

Flowing Wells hosts Marana (2-7) Friday night and Salpointe will play a Saturday game at Paradise Honors (4-4) this weekend.

The 4A, 5A and 6A Conferences are all taking part in an Open Division format this year that will include eight teams from each of the three conferences for a total of 32 teams. That tournament starts on Tuesday, Feb. 7. The next 16 teams from each of the three conferences will take part in a conference Play-In Tournament set for Thursday, Feb. 9, which will also be the same night as the second round of the Open Division tournament.

The eight winners of the Play-In phase will join teams that lost in the first or second round of the Open Division tournament to make up a 16-team state bracket for each of the three conferences. In other words, a team that loses in the first two rounds of the Open Division will still be alive in the conference playoffs.

If there aren’t enough teams to make a 16-team bracket, then the highest ranked losers from the Play-In Tournament will be used to fill up the playoff spots. There are many second chances this year.