Phoenix Shadow Mountain boys roll into 4A state title game

Phoenix Shadow Mountain defeated Phoenix Moon Valley, 87-47, on Thursday night at Glendale Copper Canyon to advance to the 4A Conference boys basketball state championship game.

After falling behind 7-2 early in the first quarter, Shadow Mountain (26-0) went on an 11-2 run to take a lead it wouldn't surrender.

Shadow Mountain coach Mike Bibby said the team arrived to the gym 30 minutes before tip. He also felt the slow start was due in part to the location. 

"There's no reason we should be here," Bibby said. "No reason any team should be playing a final four game at a high school."

Bibby said that once his team settled in, it played to its top-seed potential. 

"We started a little slow, but once we overcame all of that, things turned our way," Bibby said.

Moon Valley (23-5) got off to a good start, but seemed outmatched the later the game went.

"We knew Shadow Mountain was a good team, obviously," Moon Valley coach Matt Elliott said. "We knew we had our hands full."

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Shadow Mountain was led by senior guard Marcus Shaver, who scored a game-high 26 points on 11 of 16 shooting.

"That's just Marcus' style of play," Bibby said. "He did what he really wanted to out there."

Sophomore guard Jaelen House, son of former ASU great Eddie House, added 17 points, five assists, and a game-high seven steals.

"He's always been like that," Bibby said. "He leads to a lot of our fastbreak points on offense."

Bibby added that House works a lot on his off-time to be prepared for anything that could happen in the game.

"I tell the guys that Michael Jordan once said that he put the time and the work in so that when the time came in the game, there was no place for failure," Bibby said. "I think we put our guys in that situation."

Shadow Mountain advances to the state championship for the second straight year under Bibby, this time with a perfect record on the line. Shadow Mountain will face No. 2 Tucson Salpointe Catholic at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Gila River Arena.

The game could be the one of the last for Bibby, who has been taking courses with the intention of looking for a coaching job in college or the NBA, and depending on an invitation to New York for the Dick's Sporting Goods High School Nationals on March 30-April 1.

"You never know when something else can come along," said Bibby, who did not say whether the next game will or will not be his last.