By Don Ketchum

Scottsdale Chaparral used a 44-30 rebounding advantage to dispose of top-seeded Pinnacle 61-58 in the Class 5A Division II boys basketball semifinal on Wednesday night at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale.

Fourth-seeded Chaparral advances to Friday's 3 p.m. championship game against the winner of a late Wednesday semifinal between Scottsdale Desert Mountain and Laveen Betty H. Fairfax,

Alex Pyper scored nine of his 13 points in the final four minutes and had seven rebounds. Joe Boyd had 10 rebounds and Luke Roh nine. Zeke Chapman scored 18 points to lead the Firebirds (20-9) and Boyd had 16.

"I told the guys that if they won the rebounding battle, they would win the game,'' said Chaparral coach Aaron Windler, whose team fell to Pinnacle twice in Desert Valley Region play earlier this season.

Drew Bender helped keep Pinnacle (24-5) in the game with his three-point shooting. He hit 6 of 15 for the game.

Two of those came in the final 29.7 seconds, but Pyper hit 3 of 4 free throws and Chapman 1 of 2. Chapman shot his with 2.6 seconds left and he missed the second on purpose, knowing it would be extremely difficult for Pinnacle to go down and hit a three-pointer with that little time left.

Chaparral fell to Anthem Boulder Creek in last year's title game, and Windler said his team's experience this year as carried it through tough situations.