Christian Babcock is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain Pointe High School for AZPreps365.com.

Mountain Pointe trailed defending state champion Pinnacle 40-37 at the half of their 6A quarterfinal Saturday. The mood in the Pride locker room was somber.

As Mountain Pointe prepared to return to the court, Jason Kimbrough addressed the team.

"We gotta come out there and make a run," the junior point guard said.

Taking his advice, the Pride quickly tied the game at 46. 

Kimbrough then made good on his statement. Already with 15 first-half points, his back-to-back 3-pointers gave Mountain Pointe a 52-48 lead en route to an 82-73 victory and semifinal date at Chandler Thursday.

"Those were two really big plays that gave us a ton of momentum and got the crowd going," assistant coach Jason Kimbrough Sr. said of his son's back-to-back deep shots. "And I think it caused (Pinnacle) to have to sort of make some decisions on defense to do some different things."

At that point, Mountain Pointe's other guards got involved. Senior guard T. J. Tigler added 6 more points, while sophomore guard Anthony Jaramillo and senior guard Miles Sulka each added 2.

On the strength of their balanced scoring, the Pride opened up a near-double-digit lead and had several opportunities to close the game out in the fourth quarter. But it wasn't until Sulka stepped to the line and drained four free throws, including both ends of a 1-and-1, that the game neared its end.

"I've been missing some of those this year, but I've just been in the gym every day," Sulka said. "My dad changed my free throw routine completely. Total new approach to it. I just gotta stay calm at the free throw line. I know I can make them; I shoot at a high percentage. I just gotta keep doing that."

What did Sulka change?

"Now, before (I shoot), I gotta go up, close my eyes, visualize me swishing a free throw," Sulka said. "And then I catch it, do my dribble and then shoot it."

"And be the best shooter in the state," Kimbrough interrupted.

"My guy," Sulka responded.

Sulka couldn't help but marvel at Kimbrough's performance.

"I was on the bench for a little bit in that first half. I was struggling a little bit, and all of a sudden, Jason just, 3, 3, 3," Sulka said. "He's going insane, and it helps to have that type of momentum. 

"Complete shift of the game. It looked like we were going to get in a really bad dogfight ... It looked like they had the momentum, but he completely changed that for us. He shifted all the momentum in our favor."

Kimbrough wanted to make sure seniors like Sulka and Tigler wouldn't leave their home floor for the last time without a victory.

"That was our last home game of the season, and we definitely weren't going to leave that floor off the wrong way," Kimbrough said. "We've worked so hard, staying after practice, the long practices. Everything just came together in the last 16 minutes after halftime."