Division V, Section II at Cienega

First Round: Monday, Feb. 8

No. 4 Bowie/San Simon 33, No. 5 Valley Union 31

No. 6 Tombstone 50, No. 3 The Gregory School 41

Semifinals: Thursday, Feb. 11

No. 4 Bowie/San Simon vs. No. 1 St. David, 7 p.m.

No. 6 Tombstone vs. No. 2 Patagonia, 5:15 p.m.

Championship: Saturday, Feb. 13, 5: 15 p.m.

The girl's of Southern Arizona kicked off "February Frenzy" Monday night with a couple of upsets at the Division V, Section II sectional tournament taking place at Cienega High School.

Technically, Bowie/San Simon is the 4-seed and Valley Union is the 5-seed in the sectional tournament but the Blue Devils came in ranked 17th in the latest AIA/MaxPreps D-V rankings while the Cougars were 23rd.  In short, the Cougars needed a win to improve their chances of making the state playoffs and they did that with a 33-31 win.

Likewise, Tombstone was ranked 24th, dangerously close to the edge of qualifying for state, but the Yellow Jackets pulled off a 50-41 win over No. 15 The Gregory School. One would have to think the upset helped improve their chances of making the top 24 and a shot at the state playoffs.

In the first game, Bowie/San Simon built a 27-17 lead over Valley Union with 3:35 left in the third but the Blue Devils went on a 14-2 run to take their first lead of the game with Roxanne Cummings hitting a 3-pointer to complete the comeback with 4:57 left in the game.

Britanie Keil made a free throw with 3:03 left to cut the lead down to 31-30 and then things got a bit crazy with a couple of turnovers and missed free throws by both teams but Sabrina Zerkle tied the game up 31-31 on the front end of a one-and-one with 42 seconds left.

Zerkle missed the second attempt but Bowie/San Simon collected the rebound and Hannah Adame scored with 30 seconds left for the game-winner, 33-31.

Adame scored 11 points to lead the Cougars and Camryn Graham added eight points.

"Our season has been full of up and downs," Adame said. "We surprised ourselves with big wins over Valley Union and St. David this year but we play really well as a team."

The Cougars last went to the state playoffs in 2009 when Adame's older sister Rose Adame was a senior.

On the other side, Rachel Cummings led all scorers with 12 points and her sister Roxanne scored eight. Rachel broke the 1,000-point career scoring mark during the game, one year after her brother Arthur Cummings did it at Valley Union. All three siblings began their high school careers at Tombstone.

''I think we only won one game before we got to Tombstone and we slowly built it up," Rachel Cummings said. "I have to work harder now to get my shot off but it's been a good experience."

As mentioned before, Tombstone pulled off a major upset over The Gregory School considering the 58-38 loss the Yellow Jackets suffered at home in January.

The game came down to a battle between Tombstone sophomore Ashton Dotson and The Gregory School junior Taylor Thompson. Thompson led all scorers with 34 points but it wasn't enough with Tombstone crashing the boards in what they saw as a "do-or-die" situation.

"I wanted the win," Dotson said. "I want to go to state and I knew from the beginning my shot was going down." 

Dotson averages 18 points a game but she poured it on and finished with 27. Her play turned out to be the difference.

"We weren't ready to play," explained The Gregory School head coach Michelle Berry. "Tombstone played like they weren't going to be denied. We beat them on the boards last time but not tonight."

Tombstone built a 48-32 lead with 3:16 left in the game but Thompson scored eight points down the stretch to help cut the lead down to 50-41 but there just wasn't enough time.

Thompson is averaging over 28 points a game.

Bowie/San Simon will face St. David on Thursday night in the semifinal round and Tombstone will face Patagonia.  The winners of those two games will meet on Saturday for the section championship and the automatic berth to the state playoffs. The section champion is also guaranteed a top-11 seed in the state tournament.