Improving their record to 16-1, Tucson Cholla defeated Tucson Catalina Foothills 55-52 Thursday night. Senior Jorge Carrasco pumped in 25 points to lead the Chargers. Dakota Kordsiemon led the Falcons (11-7) with 17 points and Nik Nehls added 15.

Almost a decade removed from being the best player in the Tucson Summer Pro League, Cholla head coach Masai Dean is guiding a team two decades removed from being the best in the state.

Paul Dull coached the Chargers to a state championship in 1992 and it has been long road for the school since. Former Cholla standouts Sean Elliott and Chuck Overton remain distance memories and even Dean felt the loss of Luis Rodriguez to graduation last year meant an uncertain future for his current squad.

"This is something you don't plan for," explained Dean. Luis was our heart and soul and I didn’t know what to expect.  I certainly didn’t expect to be 16-1. They have surprised me."

Cholla's only loss of the year came against Phoenix North at the Salpointe Tipoff Classic so it has no bearing on their AIA/MaxPreps ranking which is currently at No. 4 with an 12-0 record including 8-0 in Division II and 4-0 in Section VI.

Catalina Foothills is on the edge with a 21st ranking (6-3, 2-2). A victory over Cholla would have given the school a major boost in the rankings but the Falcons had a difficult time holding leads over Cholla early on which led to the team coming up a bit short at the end.

"It comes down to experience and mental awareness," said head coach Doug D'Amore. We played hard for about 36 minutes but Cholla is a very good team and good teams figure out a way to win."

Catalina Foothills made five 3-pointers in the opening quarter to take a 17-12 lead but a costly turnover allowed Cholla to score with one second left on a layup by sophomore Ezekiel Alley.

That play was an example of the kind of uneven play D'Amore is concerned about. Kordsiemon is also concerned with the lack of a complete game coming from his squad and he feels it needs to change quickly.

"It seems we have been starting each game out pretty slow," explained Kordsiemon. "We need to fix that. We went through this in all of our losses with one bad quarter or play."

Kordsiemon was named to the MaxPreps Holiday Class All-Tournament Team over the winter break in Southern California. He is the team leader with the graduations of Chaz Mack and Austin Nehls.

The game was tied at 28-28 at the half and Cholla led 41-39 after three. Nik Nehls hit a 3-pointer to tie the game up at 45-45 with 3:57 left in the game but Dyre Dean scored underneath with 45.6 seconds left to cap a 7-2 run by Cholla to give the Chargers a 52-47 lead.

Kordsiemon scored a few seconds later but Alley made a couple of free throws to take the lead back out to 54-49 with 34.1 seconds left. Kordsiemon scored again to cut the lead down to three points but Alley made another free throw to make the lead 55-51 with 17.7 seconds left.

Nehls was fouled with 4.1 seconds and he made his first free throw to cut the lead down to 55-52. He missed the second attempt on purpose and Foothills got the rebound but the team failed to kick the ball back out for a 3-pointer and the game ended 55-52.

Lost in the victory was the scoring mark attained by Carrasco. Carrasco came into the game needing 13 points to reach 1,000 in his career and he finished with the game-high 25.

"It's surreal," said Carrasco. "We are playing great as a unit and we had a tough game tonight and I did what I needed to do. We had to grind it out. They are a good team with great 3-point shooters. It was definitely closer than I thought it would be."

Carrasco will be weighing some college offers soon but former Catalina Foothills standout Austin Nehls has committed to play for Central Connecticut after spending his current year at Connecticut Cheshire Academy.

Joe Nehls played basketball at the University of Arizona in the days before the 3-point line but both of his sons have benefitted tremendously form it. Austin made 173 3-pointers to help him finish with 1,444 points at Catalina Foothills while Nik nailed three long-range shots against Cholla alone.

Cholla will play Tucson High (14-6) on Monday night as part of the MLK Classic taking place at McKale Center. Catalina Foothills will play at Marana (0-20) next Wednesday.