The Desert Vista girls basketball team is at it again.

Swarming, pressing defense was the difference Tuesday as the Mesa Red Mountain girls basketball team tasted defeat for the first time this season.

Devon Alonzo and Brianna Brown each scored 19 points for Hamilton, but the Huskies (10-4) couldn’t overcome 24 turnovers and fell to East Lake (Calif.), 68-58, in the semifinals of the Nike Tournament of Champions Wednesday at Basha High School.

The boys basketball team at Mountain View High School has scored a $9,000 deal with athletic apparel-maker Nike to suit up the squad for the next two seasons. And the school won’t have to pay a cent.

On March 19th 2012, ultra-endurance athlete, Jason Lester, will begin the Journey for a Better World. He will be running and biking over 4,000 miles across the United States, relaying the Nike message that a better world starts with sport. Along the way, Jason will be stopping at 39 Nike Stores, sharing how sport inspires hope, instills discipline, raises confidence and rallies communities just like yours. Show your support by joining Jason along the journey and ignite a fire to create one of your own. Long after Jason moves on to the next stop, you and your community will continue blazing new trails, knocking down barriers and creating a better world through sport. Join Nike Better World and Jason throughout his Journey by RSVP'ing to one of his 39 stops along the way. http://gonike.me/JourneyEvents For real-time updates and inspiration, join the action: http://www.nikebetterworld.com/journey http://www.twitter.com/nikebetterworld Hashtags: #betterworld #journey

The high school cross country season is over just in time for the national events.

What is fast becoming one of the best events in the nation, the Nike Cross Nationals cross country championship series, will be holding its Southwest Regional meet on Saturday at Toka Sticks Golf Club in Mesa.

They’ve put away the starting blocks and jumping mats, but seven members of the Desert Vista girls track and field team haven’t called it a season just yet.

The Nike Tournament of Champions I kicks off Friday, and for some local girl basketball teams it is their first shot at invitational play this season.

On Monday afternoon it was Phoenix Desert Vista's post play that paved the way for a semifinal victory in the Nike Tournament of Champions I. On Tuesday afternoon the Thunder used the quickness and penetration of Austen Harris to carve up Campolindo, Calif., 65-55, to win the championship of the Blue Division bracket at Chandler Hamilton High School.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Nike Inc.'s third-quarter profit jumped more than 30 percent because of strong sales overseas and beneficial currency exchanges, the athletic shoe and apparel giant said Wednesday.

Gilbert Mesquite founds its way to the line with the game on the line.

Chandler Hamilton hasn’t faced many close games among the eight in a row it’s won in the 2007-2008 prep girls basketball season. Thursday afternoon looked to be another one of those at halftime.

High school sports in Chandler will soon be brought to you exclusively by Nike.

Nike Golf’s “Whistle-stop Tour ’06’’ blew into the East Valley on Tuesday afternoon to promote its latest-greatest drivers in the game — the SasQuatch Sumo and the radical SasQuatch Sumo2, or “Sumo Squared.”

Mesa Red Mountain gets its turn to play with the big girls today through Thursday in the annual Nike Tournament of Champions in Chandler.