No. 9 Gilbert came up with a mild upset over No. 8 Tucson Thursday night in the first round of the 6A state playoffs. The Tigers held on for a 47-46 victory despite being down several times in the game and the reward will be a trip to play at No. 1 Highland in the quarterfinal round next Tuesday night. Highland beat No. 17 Red Mountain 69-51 to set up the match with Gilbert.

The Badgers led 17-11 after the first quarter and 30-24 at the break but the Tigers ended the third quarter on a 7-2 run to close the gap down to 39-37. Khalil O'Bannon made a couple of free throws to put the Badgers up 42-37 with 6:49 left in the game but the Tigers stretched the Tucson defense again and Christion Fleming completed a comeback with a dunk with 4:23 left to put the Tigers up 45-44.

Xavier Grajeda made a couple of free throws to put Tucson back up 46-45 with 4:09 left but Fleming scored and a missed layup by Tucson led to another bucket from Fleming and a couple of missed 3-point attempts from Tucson led to a buckets at the other end and the Tigers built a 53-46 lead with 1:20 left.

O'Bannon gave Tucson some life with a basket and a free throw to cut the Tiger lead down to 53-49 with 1:11 left. The Tigers missed two free throws and O’Bannon made one at his end to cut the lead down to 53-50 with 55.1 seconds left. The Badgers got the ball back with 52.6 seconds left in the game but a turnover in the lane led to another missed free throw from Gilbert. Tucson missed a 3-pointer to tie the game and two free throws from Jaden Acuna resulted in a 55-50 Gilbert lead with 14.8 seconds left.

Antoine Green made a 3-pointer to cut the Tiger lead down to 55-53 with 5.9 seconds left but Gus Cardon sealed the victory for Gilbert with two made free throws. A last-second 3-pointer from Julio Marquez gave us the 57-56 final.

The Badgers ended the season with a 23-5 record with the first trip to the state playoffs since 2020. Gilbert (18-11) was led by Acuna (20 points), Fleming (14) and Luke Balazentis (11). Green led Tucson with 15 points, Julio Marquez had 14 points, O'Bannon added 13 and Grajeda finished with nine.