Since the Section Seven basketball invitational in June, a target had been firmly placed on the backs of the Peoria Panthers as the team to beat in the 4A conference.
On Thursday night, the Panthers in front of a raucous crowd brought home the fourth basketball championship in school history with a 65-57 hard fought victory against their rivals, the Deer Valley Skyhawks.
The road to victory wasn’t a straight path for the Panthers this season. After a 12-1 start to the regular season, senior point guard Andrew Camacho suffered a broken hand that kept him out until the final game of the regular season.
During that stretch, the Panthers suffered back-to-back losses to open division finalist Sunnyslope and the number-one ranked team in the 4A conference, ALA Gilbert-North.
Through it all however, the Panthers never wavered and were able to secure the third overall seed in the first ever open division bracket knocking off 5A Catalina Foothills before falling to former region rival Notre Dame Prep in the second round.
Luckily for Peoria, the first two rounds of the Open Division are played before the conference tournament starts so the Panthers still were able to fall back into the conference bracket and secure both the number two seed and home court until the championship game.
In round one, the Panthers led by 38 points from Camacho were able to advance past Seton Catholic with a 78-50 victory.
In the quarterfinals, it was Calvin Windley who led the way with 21 points and seven rebounds that were key in a 75-55 victory against Dysart.
The Bradshaw Mountain Bears awaited the Panthers in the semifinals. The Bears were a roster loaded with tall and lengthy players as they boasted eight players that were 6’5 or taller.
The Panthers had zero players taller than 6’4, yet that didn’t deter them from dominating every aspect of the game as they cruised to a 67-53 victory with Windley and Camacho leading the way.
Awaiting the Panthers in the final was not just their biggest rival but their most respected opponent, the Deer Valley Skyhawks.
Since 2020 when these region rivals first came to be, the respect between head coaches Jed Dunn of the Skyhawks and Dr. Patrick Battillo of Peoria has helped foster a relationship on the court between the players that includes hugs with one another and long conversations before and after the game as well as handwritten notes of support for one another through the battles each side faces whether it be while Dr. Battillo’s father was recovering from a Car Accident or when coach Dunn’s sister-in-law was sick.
That’s why when pregame when both teams gathered at center court to pray for one another, the fans in the stands and those who’d seen these programs become so tight knit weren’t surprised one bit.
It’s also why once the ball was tipped, the war between both sides mirrored that of a strategic battle where each steal and each rebound meant more to each player that was able to secure it.
Right away, both teams struggled to adjust inside of the Coliseum as the depth perception on the floor created issues for both sides as they shot a combined 12-33 from the field and 2-13 from the perimeter.
In the second quarter, the Skyhawks were able to find their rhythm as Travis Vasquez and Eric Perkins were able to spark a run to put the Skyhawks up 27-20 late in the second quarter before Caden Bass put up eight points in the quarter himself to have Peoria down 30-27 at halftime.
In the locker room at halftime, Dr. Battillo had a message for his players.
“After everything, we’re only down three. We have 16 minutes left in this season to go out there and lock in. We will go out there, we will lock in and play Panther basketball and we will win this game.”
In the third quarter the Panthers did exactly that, Camacho had 11 points in the quarter set up by crucial rebounds and tough defense by the duo of Elijah Ward and Christopher Brookins. Saieed Hasan also had a big basket in the quarter to put Peoria up 47-46 heading to the fourth quarter.
The beginning of the fourth quarter was a back-and-forth affair as Peoria would jump to a four-point lead before Deer Valley would come back and take a 50-49 lead. But that would be the last lead of the night for the Skyhawks.
The Panthers would go on a 10-0 run to go up 59-50 with just 1:50 left in the game led by Camacho, Ward, Windley, and Bass stepping up on both ends of the court.
Deer Valley would score a quick three pointer to cut the deficit to six but would trade baskets before a missed shot turned into an additional two points and an eight-point lead with under a minute to go.
With 21 seconds left, Dr. Battillo would call a timeout and clear the bench putting juniors Amir Brown and Marcus Jackson Jr in the game alongside sophomores Terrell Colenburg and Nehemiah Ward.
As time ran off the clock, an assistant coach on the Peoria bench pulled confetti poppers out of his backpack and handed them down the line of players on the bench.
Exactly as the clock hit zero and the buzzer sounded, confetti rained down underneath the Peoria basket and a deafening roar from the Panther Faithful could be heard from the Coliseum to the campus of Peoria High School.
After the game Elijah Ward talked about his effort during the game.
“My job tonight was to clean up the glass and play good defense and help in any way I could and I’m happy I could do that for us”
Caden Bass also talked about his role on the offensive end throughout the game.
“Once I saw the ball go in I felt comfortable, I knew it was different shooting in here but if I took the shots I normally take I knew they’d go in”
Calvin Windley talked about how the team battled through the adversity of being down in the game.
“At halftime, the speech boosted our confidence, we weren’t dwelling on being down that gets you nowhere, we had to lock in for our brothers and fight through it”
The Panthers will graduate four seniors with Saieed Hasan who’ll play college football at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Elijah Ward who plans on playing college football but is still weighing his options, Calvin Windley who plans on playing college basketball but is also weighing his options, and Andrew Camacho who will play college basketball and is still undecided.
This is the fourth basketball championship in school history, and it is the sweetest one yet.
