The 21st Annual MLK Basketball Classic was held on Monday in McKale Center on the University of Arizona campus. It is the longest continually running high school basketball classic held in the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. to be played in an NCAA Division I arena. All the games were power point matches that were moved to Monday in celebration of the day.

 

The first game featured a 2A Conference battle with the St. Augustine girls beating Desert Christian 41-36 behind 20 points from Megan Callahan. The senior broke 1,000 career points in the game in McKale.

 

The boys of Bisbee beat Santa Rita in the next game 53-37 with senior standout Sebastian Lopez scoring 24 points.

 

Next, the Rincon/University girls beat Buena 54-48 in double overtime. Both squads had chances to win in regulation and during the first overtime with Ranger sophomore standout Leila O'Dowd pouring in 31 points.

 

The Coolidge boys held off the Gregory School 53-45. Gregory School won the 1A championship last year and Coolidge is a 3A program. Preston Dees scored 18 points for Coolidge.

 

The Pueblo girls beat Catalina Foothills 68-66 in a battle between two top three teams from the 5A Conference. America Cazares scored 31 for Pueblo and Clara-Mae Hager scored 32 for the Falcons.

 

Sabino beat Palo Verde 66-62 in the next game. Caden Watkins scored 22 and Brendan Gargus scored 19 for Sabino and Daniel Ortiz had 19 for Palo Verde.

 

The Mica Mountain girls beat Sahuaro 52-44. Isabella Webb scored 16 points for Mica Mountain and Carly Coolidge scored 10 for the Cougars.

 

The Tucson High boys beat Salpointe in the final game 51-44. Patrick Flores had 21 for Tucson and Omar Rasul had 12 for the Lancers.