Mountain View's Jessica Salaz scores inside over Tucson point guard Bailey Johnson.MARANA, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
Jessica Salaz scored 18 points including seven in the 3rd quarter that helped sparked a 13-1 run after the break to lead the #19 Mountain View to an upset win over 4th ranked Tucson in Division Prep Girls Basketball.
The Lions (11-4) led a pretty tight game 29-28 at the half. But used tenacious defense and great passing to come fast out of the gate to start the third quarter.
Junior center Karina Kelly found Salaz underneath for an easy layup to give Mountain View a 34-29 lead.
The Lions stretched the advantage on a Lauren Reece pick of Badgers guard Jazmyne Redmond that led to a fast break bucket for Salaz putting the Lions up 38-29.
Turnovers were a killer for TMHS (15-2). Ajonay Hodges' errant pass became an easy steal and layup for Melody McLaughlin. Mountain View was on top by as many as 13 points in the third quarter.
But the Badgers final got their star freshman Lexi Cortez involved in the later stages of the third and early part of the fourth quarter to trim the Lions lead to 45-43 on a three-pointer by Kyli McCorkle-Olbin.
Cortez finished with 21 points but missed a key jumper in the final minute that would have tied the game and the Lions made free-throws for the final margin of victory.
The two teams meet again on January 29th at Tucson High School.
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