By Daniel Karl

The Tempe Buffaloes' strong defense and consistent shooting led them to a 100-43 victory against the Casa Grande Cougars in the last game of their regular seasons.

“Tuesday our defense wasn’t that good. We needed to get better defensively,” said Tempe head coach Tom Saltzstein.  “We exercised some of those demons from Tuesday and played better defensively tonight.”

The Buffaloes lost 78-56 Tuesday night at home against Higley High School.

On Thursday, senior Nate Manley and junior Naseem Vigil led the way for Tempe with 22 points each.

Manley continued to fill up the stat book, along with sophomore teammate Jalen Gant, as the two each recorded a double-double to help solidify the win versus the Cougars.

The Buffs had 89 points going into the fourth quarter and the bench kept getting antsier and antsier as the team was racing against the clock to get to 100 points.  As Junior Jamal Al-Rashed received a pass from Vigil, Al-Rashed sunk the three-point shot to bring the Buffaloes to 100, causing the bench and Tempe fans to erupt.

This is the highest scoring total for Tempe High School since they put up 98 points during the 2014-2015 season.

Jacob Johnson of Casa Grande led all scorers with 29 points in his last game of his high school basketball career.

“We were just trying to focus on having fun,” said Johnson.  “Our record wasn’t the best and it was a difficult season, but for the last game we just tried to have fun.”

Johnson is undecided on where he will play basketball at the next level. 

“I’m just trying to pick the place that is right for me, academically and athletically,” he said.

The Cougars finished the season with a 3-15 overall record but are only graduating three seniors.

“It’s been a rough year. We’ve had a lot of defections,” said Casa Grande head coach Robert Peterson.  “With that being said, I think the future is good for us.  We have kids coming in that we will build up.  I think better days are ahead for us.”

As for the Buffaloes, they finished the regular season with a 13-5 record, and they will begin to prepare for the state tournament.

“We get back to the practice floor Saturday afternoon and we’ll reteach and review everything,” said Saltzstein.  “Defense, offense, work on our fundamentals.  We still turn over the basketball way too much.”

Round 1 of the state tournament begins on Feb. 15, after the team seedings are announced.

Saltzstein said it's plain and simple, “We have to get better to reach our goal.”

Karl is a sports journalism student at Arizona State.