Champs back for more

Nick Christensen

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 11:20 a.m.

Rematch, anyone?

The Palo Verde boys' basketball team looked nothing short of inspired for just that reason through most of its 66-43 win against Valley at the Orleans Arena.

And the Panthers got their wish, with Bishop Gorman defeating Northern champion Galena in the evening semifinal, setting up a repeat tonight of last Friday's Sunset Region title game.

"I know it's the matchup everyone wanted to see," Gaels coach Grant Rice said. "(P'Allen Stinnett) came out shooting -- he was on fire tonight."

Stinnett, who was relatively ineffective in last week's championship loss to the Gaels, scored 35 points through midway in the fourth quarter, when the defending state champion Panthers had a 20-point lead and coach Paul Aznarez called off the hounds.

Palo Verde's junior guard had 12 points in the second quarter -- four 3-pointers in a row. Four long 3-pointers.

"That was crazy," Stinnett said. "During warm-ups, I shot long, used to being in the gym. I started shooting from NBA range, and it was going in."

The Panthers had Valley's numbers -- 4 and 32, as in Valley guards Josh Rivers and Justin Everett, who combined to shoot 11-of-25 from the field. Rivers finished with 13 points, Everett with 14.

The Panthers outmuscled Valley inside as well, outrebounding the Vikings 42-19 with no player picking up more than three fouls. Brian Marks had 16 rebounds for Palo Verde.

Aznarez said his team is looking forward to the chance to make up for last week.

"We just have to battle all game long," Aznarez said. "We know what we have to address. Hopefully we can overcome that bad second quarter."

The Gaels had a little tougher time with the Northern champions. Galena played a back-and-forth game with Bishop Gorman, up 13-12 at the end of the first quarter and still leading by one at halftime.

Ironically Gorman, a team that usually struggles in the second half, opened the game up in the final 16 minutes.

The Gaels shot 72 percent for the second half, blazing by the Grizzlies for a 68-53 victory.

"We were concerned. We weren't worried, but we were concerned," Rice said. "You give a team like Galena a lead, you've got to find out how to catch up."

Kashif Watson led the Gaels in scoring with 21 points, and Marcus Lawrence and C.J. Portz each added 20. Derek Lorenzen led the Grizzlies with 16 points, and forward Luke Babbitt had 14.

Gorman guard Martrell Fantroy, who will be part of the tandem charged with guarding Stinnett tonight, downplayed the rematch.

"Last week he called us all out, but I'm not going to get into all that," Fantroy said. "It's just another game. We'll come hard and play hard tomorrow. We shut them down as a team, not just one player. We focus on the whole team."

The 4A boys championship game tips off at 8 p.m. at the Orleans Arena.

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