Tucson High boys — and their fans — gave it all they had in semi setback | Michael Lev

Maybe the Tucson High School boys basketball team shed a few in the locker room after the Badgers lost to Gilbert Perry 69-64 in the 6A state semifinals Wednesday night.

But when they returned to the court about 20 minutes after the final buzzer, they weren’t sad. They were proud. They knew they had given it all they had.

“Those kids work hard,” Tucson High coach and alum Eric Langford said. “We’re in here 11 months out of the year. I sacrifice. They sacrifice. I’m just proud of this team.”

Tucson advanced further than anyone expected. Seeded sixth in the 6A bracket after losing in the first round of the Open tournament, the Badgers blasted Glendale Apollo and upset No. 3 seed Chandler in the Wolves’ den. Teams from Tucson rarely beat teams from the Phoenix area in “big school” matchups these days. Langford’s squad did.

Thanks to No. 7 seed Perry’s upset of No. 2 seed Avondale West Point, the Pumas had to travel to Tucson for the semis. It was a scene.

The parking lot was packed. The bleachers were bonkers. The gym was jumping.

“It was really amazing,” THS senior Malaki Cunningham-Hiadzi said. “I never heard it that loud before in this gym. ... I just want to say thank you to my school, thank you to my city and thank you to everybody for coming out and supporting us.”

The standing-room-only crowd included the Tucson High baseball team, which sported neon-yellow construction vests and white hard hats while leading cheers from the bleachers behind the south basket; and about half of the No. 2-ranked college basketball team in the nation.

Perry alum Koa Peat sat behind the Pumas’ bench, and he brought some friends. They included Arizona teammates Brayden Burries, Tobe Awaka, Jaden Bradley, Ivan Kharchenkov and Bryce James. On this particular night, the gym down the street from McKale Center was the place to be.

Perry won four consecutive state titles with Peat as its star player. This was supposed to be something of a rebuilding year for the Pumas, who not only lost Peat and several of his teammates but eight-time state-champion head coach Sam Duane Jr., who stepped away shortly after last season.

Yet here they are, headed back to the state title game again under the direction of first-year coach Justin Collard. Perry will face No. 5 seed Peoria Liberty on Saturday at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

“That's a well-coached team over there,” Langford said. “They have great players. That's a championship school. They've been in it now five years in a row. So you have to take the game from that school, even though it's not the same players. They have the history.”

The comeback

Despite the best efforts of Cunningham-Hiadzi (team-high 21 points) and his teammates, Tucson couldn’t take the game away from Perry.

The Badgers led by seven points early in the second quarter thanks to a Patrick Flores 3-pointer. But by the end of the period, that lead was gone; the Pumas took a 38-37 advantage into the break.

They expanded the lead to 10 points late in the third quarter, but the Badgers battled back. It’s what they’ve always done under Langford’s leadership.

With four seconds left in the third quarter, Flores drew a charge. He then banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 52-46. Game on.

Perry responded amid a five- to six-minute stretch that Langford described as “out of character.” The Pumas outscored the Badgers 10-2 in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter to go up 62-48.

“We forced some shots. We were late on defensive rotations. They were going downhill,” Langford said.

“I think they got three layups because we didn't come help side. That's stuff we work on every day. But when you're tired, crowd, atmosphere, a little bit of pressure because we're down, stuff like that happens.

“We forget that they're teenagers. I'm not yelling at them. They're not grown men over there. They're gonna forget sometimes.”

But Tucson wasn’t willing to concede. Not on this night in front of this crowd.

Cunningham-Hiadzi made a steal that led to a Flores layup. Cunningham-Hiadzi — a bouncy 6-foot-5 lefty who likely will play for Pima Community College next season — went to work inside, drawing contact and getting to the foul line.

Sophomore Jaylan Knight’s 3-pointer with 49.4 seconds left made it 66-62. After a miss at the other end, Knight plowed toward the basket, drew a blocking call and sank two foul shots to make it a two-point game with 27 seconds remaining.

Tucson deployed a full-court press. In lieu of a steal, the Badgers had to foul. They sent 6-6 Perry sophomore Viktor Babic — one of the top players in the state in the class of 2028 — to the foul line.

The fans knew what they had to do. They stomped, screamed and screeched. Langford flapped his arms to egg them on.

Babic made one and missed one. Tucson had an opening.

Flores got a look from 3 and missed. Senior guard Tavion Okougbo swiped the rebound. Langford called a timeout with 6.6 seconds left.

Flores got one more chance. He launched a contested 3 from the right corner. It bounded off the rim. Babic snared the rebound. Game over.

“We went down, but ... we work too hard to just go out like that at home,” Cunningham-Hiadzi said. “So chip away, chip away, try to get back. We got back. But they're a good team.

“Coming back from down 14 against a good team like that is difficult. But I'm proud of my team. I'm proud of myself. I’m proud of how far we came.”

'A good ride'

Tucson last won a state championship in boys basketball in 1969. That was also the last time the Badgers reached the title game. Advancing to the semifinals was a big enough deal that the school had “Final Four” T-shirts made to commemorate the achievement.

Langford played at Tucson High in the late 1980s and early '90s on teams he described as “stacked.” His senior season, 1991, ended with a blown lead in the playoffs against Mesa Mountain View. That hurt a lot more than this.

“Tonight's not heartbreaking for me,” Langford said. “It's an enjoyable night for me. We had the whole city out here.

“Heartbreak is when you lose a game up 24 and we don't use a timeout in '91. That's heartbreak. This one's a good ride.”

It was also excruciatingly close to going the other way — an ending Langford has experienced all too many times.

His 2021-22 and '22-23 teams lost their final games by one point. His 2023-24 squad dropped its finale by two points. Last year’s team lost by six points to Mesa, which ended up as the 6A runner-up.

Before Langford’s arrival in June 2020, the Badgers were lucky to make the state playoffs, let alone advance in them.

“Everybody says we're the hardest-playing team in Arizona, and I agree with them,” Langford said.

“We don't have five-stars. We don't have four-stars. We don't have nobody walking in the door that’s 6-8, 250. Our tallest players are 6-5, 6-4, and they know they have to battle.”

The Badgers battled until the final seconds Wednesday night. That’s why there were satisfied smiles afterward instead of tears. That’s why Langford delivered an uplifting speech in the locker room.

“His message was just keep your heads high,” Cunningham-Hiadzi said. “For us seniors, don't take this as something to get down about. And then to our younger guys, they just gotta keep on working.

"This wasn’t an accident that we got here. We got here because of countless hours that we put in these gyms — Saturday practices, offseason when we shouldn't even be here.

“This is our first year that we've got this far. ... It didn't really even kick in until last night. I was like, ‘We're really doing something. We're really here.’

“The goal was to be at that Coliseum on Saturday. But God had different plans.”