City rivals Red Mountain, Dobson battle for final 5A-I berth

February 14, 2011 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Red Mountain and Dobson high schools opened the power-point portion of their 2010-2011 boys basketball season against each other on Nov. 30. Red Mountain prevailed, 64-57. The teams have been up and down this season and have one game remaining.

Entering Tuesday night's limited 5A action, Dobson (9-8 power-point games) visits Mesa Mountain View (14-2) and Red Mountain (6-11) travels to 5A-II South Mountain (10-7). Dobson currently holds down the 16th and final berth with a power-ranking of 63.8567. Red Mountain is at No. 17 (63.6339). The difference is .2228 of a point. Red Mountain has not been able to win its share of close games, which is why the Mountain Lions are going down to the wire to qualify. Eight of their 11 power-point losses have been by five points or less.

If Red Mountain wins and Dobson loses, the Mountain Lions likely will nab the final berth. The other way around or both win or lose, Dobson likely hangs on to the berth.

What's interesting if Red Mountain gains the berth is it likely would face Buena, likely the No. 1 seed, in the first round at state. The teams met in late December at the VisitMesa.com tournament with Red Mountain handing Buena an overtime loss. The Mountain Lions are a 16-seed that would not be intimidated, but respectful of Buena in a state tournament matchup.