Last year, Deer Valley's boys basketball team made it all the way to the 5A state finals before losing in the championship game. This year, they are now one win away from reaching that same pinnacle after defeating St. Mary’s, 67-52, on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the 4A state tournament.

No. 2-seed Deer Valley (22-4) will face No. 11-seed Catalina Foothills (20-6) next Friday at Grand Canyon University Arena.  The Falcons upset No. 3-seed Buckeye on Friday, 57-54.

Friday's game at Deer Valley was much closer than the final score indicates. Both teams were playing hard, aggressive defense and not giving up any easy points. This was just a two-point game with Deer Valley leading 24-22 at halftime. The Skyhawks took a 40-31 lead into the fourth quarter.

Deer Valley senior guard Johnny Diaz led all scorers with 17 in the final home game of his career, but they did not come easy as St. Mary’s had a plan to trap on defense and clog the lane.

Deer Valley head coach Jed Dunn said he and Knights head coach Damin Lopez are good friends and knew exactly what each other was going to do coming into this game and that the game really just came down to execution and hitting shots.

“I knew that the team that won this game would be the team that played the toughest and the longest,” Dunn said. “This wasn’t a 15-point game. I knew it was going to be a tough battle. They are good and they are so young. They will be right back here next year for sure.”

Diaz said that the full-court trap that the Skyhawks use caused a lot of problems for the Knights. He said that they have a really long team with some long arms so they can get into the passing lanes and disrupt what other teams are trying to do.

This game, however, was not just decided on the court but it was decided in the stands, too, as the two crowds were absolutely getting after it.  St. Mary’s brought a large group of fans and it made the atmosphere in the gymnasium come alive.

“Believe it or not, we have actually had a crowd like that for the last three weeks,” Lopez said. “Once you start getting it rolling at St. Mary’s the entire community comes out and it is such a special place. So, our kids are used to playing in front of a lot of things like that.”

The crowds were feeding off of each other the entire game. When one would yell “offense,” the other would yell “defense.” When Deer Valley would chant “Let’s go D-V,” St. Mary’s would yell “You need Jesus!”

The crowds helped all of the players on the court raise their games and play their best basketball, Dunn said.

“They brought a crowd and it really fired us up,” Dunn said. “It was such a good environment and that’s really what high school basketball should be.”

St. Mary’s ended their season at 19-6 overall and 8-2 in region, but with a lot of hope and a bright future ahead because the Knights will only lose five seniors.

“We’ve just got to get back into the weight room and keep doing our training that we are doing,” Lopez said. “Everything that we’ve done up to this point to really build the program, it’s just got to go another level.”