Jacob Inclan scored 20 points to help Tucson Sunnyside get past Tucson Pueblo 63-57 Tuesday night in an overtime battle at home. For various reasons, every single point Inclan scored proved to be important.

His first bucket not only put Sunnyside up 3-0, it also gave him an even 1,000 points in his career.  Inclan is only a junior which makes the milestone even more remarkable but the celebration would have been meaningless had the Blue Devils lost.

"I play to win so I would gladly give up my stats any day if it meant more to the team," explained Inclan on the closeness of the game in conjunction with his milestone. "But I'm grateful we were able to grind it out," he added.

It was a game where Sunnyside seemed to be in control of but it didn't reflect on the scoreboard. Sunnyside built a 35-24 lead with 11.9 seconds left in the half but a 3-pointer from Joaquin Orozco at the buzzer cut it back down to 35-27 and Sunnyside only led 43-37 heading into the fourth.

Pueblo is coached by former University of Arizona basketball and football standout Kelvin Eafon.  A first-year high school coach after leading a powerhouse AAU program, Eafon is Pueblo's third coach in three years.

The Warriors went 1-26 three years ago and that was followed by a much improved 12-16 season with Gary Crane agreeing to come out of retirement to help turn the program back to where it was during the Lafayette “Fat” Lever and Michael Perez days.

Still, that's a lot of changes and a difficult situation to sustain any kind of progress for a struggling program but that's where Eafon came in,

"I've only had them for two months but we have a bunch of kids who really worked hard and they have all bought in," said Eafon. "We have senior leadership from Aiden Romero and Naquwan Solomon and they are all improving and competing."

The Warriors are now 9-3 and the fourth quarter showed the fight Eafon has brought to the program.

Inclan put Sunnyside up 49-43 with 4:21 left in the game and it looked like the Blue Devils were going to slowly pull away but Solomon scored and then Onelio Madrid hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Pueblo their first lead of the game at 51-49 with 2:20 left.

Mikey Silva hit a free throw with 2:03 left but Pueblo retained the ball with a 51-50 lead and began to milk the clock but Inclan stole the ball and was later fouled on 3-point attempt with 1:10 left in the game.

Inclan made all three free throws to give Sunnyside a 53-51 lead. Solomon was fouled on the other end and he made both free throws to tie it up at 53-53 to send the game to overtime where Sunnyside outscored Pueblo 10-4 to pull out the 63-57 win.

The win allowed Inclan to enjoy his scoring milestone but there is still a lot of work to be done.

"I'm very grateful," said Inclan. "Not very many players get to score 1,000 but I hope there will be more.  We've had tough games all year and we have more coming up. We have to grind them all out."

Inclan got his 20 points, Santino Duarte had 12 and Carlos Lozoya added nine. For Pueblo, Solomon had 19, Romero scored 11 and Madrid finished with eight.

Sunnyside will travel to Tucson Flowing Wells on Thursday and Pueblo will host Rio Rico on Friday.

 

NOTE

Corey Hawkins of Division III Goodyear Estrella Foothills scored 3,154 points in four years but former University of Arizona standout Mike Bibby scored 3,002 at Division I Phoenix Shadow Mountain in only three years of work.

Jerryd Bayless (Phoenix St. Mary's) scored 2,888 before heading over to play for Arizona. Daniel Bejarano (Phoenix North) is fourth with 2,642. Bejarano played for Arizona before heading to Colorado State.

Tucson Cholla's Chuck Overton scored 2,535 in his career to come in fifth.