The Northwest Desert Classic falls at the midpoint of the high school basketball season, providing many teams with a gauge and an outlook for the rest of the 2011-12 campaign.
For Desert Christian, which entered the tournament a perfect 10-0, it's been a reality check.
A convincing 65-39 win over Sahuarita on Thursday afternoon was the Eagles' first triumph after suffering three early tourney losses to Marana, Sierra Vista Buena and Glendale Apollo.
"It was kind of a rough start for us," said Desert Christian senior forward Myles Mayfield, who scored 10 points Thursday at Canyon del Oro as one of four Eagles to reach double figures.
"Honestly, we could have done different tournaments with smaller schools, since we are a smaller school," Mayfield said. "But we wanted to play bigger schools. This is good for us. If we never lose, then we think, 'Oh, we're the best; we never have to get any better.'
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"This way, we can really learn and take the losses in stride to get better."
Desert Christian, with an enrollment of just over 400 students, competes in Division IV. In comparison, Buena (Division I) and Apollo (Division II), boast a combined enrollment of roughly 4,000.
"We knew coming in we were going to have a challenge," Desert Christian coach Iram Alday said. "But we wanted to play some of these bigger teams.
"It's a good test to get ready for our division."
After taking a 31-22 halftime lead against Sahuarita, a Division III team, the Eagles exploded in the second half, opening the third quarter on a 12-3 run to take a 43-25 lead. They began the fourth on an 11-0 run to go up 54-29.
"We pride ourselves on our defense," Alday said. "We were great with our ball pressure, and we tried to deny their two bigs.
"We wanted to push the ball up the court on offense. We love our half-court sets when we can get into that."
The Eagles' big lead allowed Alday to use his bench liberally throughout the second half. All 11 Desert Christian players who dressed for Thursday's game saw action, and 10 of them scored.
"Our first unit, I'd like to say that they can compete with anyone," Alday said. "But our second unit got an opportunity to play against a high level of competition and that gets us ready to run things against teams that we're going to see in the second half (of the season).
"That's why we do this tournament, for opportunities like that."
Eagles junior Ryan Barents led all scorers with 12 points, while juniors Luke Gleason and Ben Brandon chipped in 11 apiece.
For a team that suffered a quarterfinal loss in last season's state tournament, a performance like Thursday's provides confidence that a trip deeper into the postseason bracket is possible this year.
"I think this team is a little bit better," Alday said. "They understand each other better. We have more shooters this year than we did last year and so we're able to go inside-outside a lot.
"They're a scrappy team, I like to say. They're fun to coach."
They seem humble, too.
"Here, we learned that we're not untouchable," Mayfield said. "We know we've got to go hard every single play, every single game because taking even one play off will get us nowhere."
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