Catalina Foothills beat Ironwood Ridge 58-52 Wednesday night at home to clinch the 5A Southern Region championship and improve to 13-5 in power-ranking games. The Falcons came in ranked No. 10 in the 5A Conference and No. 30 in the Open Division and the Nighthawks moved to 10-6 with a No. 19 ranking in the conference.

The Falcons have completed their regular season schedule and the team will find out Saturday morning where and who the will be matched up against in the playoffs and the Nighthawks will host 6A opponent Tucson High (15-2) Friday night to end regular season play with a high position in the Play-In Tournament on the line.

Tad Cain has the Nighthawks ready for the postseason in his first year with the team. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Noah Williams led all scorers with 20 points and the 6-foot-8 senior helped guide Ironwood Ridge to an early 12-5 lead but Catalina Foothills went on a 21-10 run to take a 26-22 lead at the half. The lead was trimmed to 38-37 after three periods and the game was still in doubt despite another run that put the Falcons up 48-39 with 4:57 left in the game.

Andrew Cain added 13 points for Ironwood Ridge and he hit a deep shot to cut the lead down to 55-50 with 47.1 seconds left and Isaiah Overton cut the lead down to 56-52 on a couple of free throws with 17.9 seconds left but freshman Jack van Amburg ended the threat with two free throws of his own for the final 58-52 margin. Cole Pinckney led the Falcons with 15 points, Quinn Pinckney added 14 as did Alberto Mendoza.

Ironwood Ridge beat Catalina Foothills 50-44 on Jan. 23.