Two teams on the outside looking in of the top title contenders in Division I girls volleyball lined up Thursday evening in the middle of their spring break to see who was better.

Basha proved it was with a some luck and its best performance of the match the final two sets in taking a 30-28, 15-25, 23-25, 25-16, 15-11 triumph over host Mountain Pointe.

Basha (17-9 overall, 8-3 in power-ranking matches) entered play No. 9 in the division power rankings while Mountain Pointe (16-7,  5-4) was No. 10.  The under-sized Bears played catch-up off and on to nab the victory rallying from six points down several times in the first set to win and taking the final two sets. It wasn't always pretty, but a battle by both sides nonetheless.

"I think both teams were lethargic being on fall break," Basha coach Terri Spann said. "I told tour girls we were lucky to win the first set and (Mountain Pointe) proved it beating us bad ithe next set. We're little, and we have to do what we have to do to win."

Basha, which has only one player tallier than 6-feet, relies heavily on senior outside hitter Justine Spann. Spann got off to slow start in the first set, but managed six kills in helping the Bears come back from 14-8 and 22-16 deficits, not to mention a 6-1 deficit early. Spann collected seven kills in the first set on the way to 33 for the night. Basha didn't get its first lead in the set until 28-27. Mountain Pointe's service error gave Basha a second lead 29-28 and the Bears won it on their second set point thanks to a kill by Julia Malinas.

Mountain Pointe was at its best in the second and third sets with junior outside Chapin Gray and senior outside/opposite Carly Cron doing most of that attack damage. Gray finished with 18 kils and Cron had 15. Junior middle Nura Muhammad was intstrumental in blocking. She had two solos and nine assists. Gray and Muhammad teamed up for a block in the tight third set that gave the Pride the lead for good, 22-21. Gray's final kill of the set led to set point -- a hitting error by Basha.

Basha won the fourth set with ease -- dominated by Spann with 12 kills. The Bears took that momentum to the final set, jumping to an 8-2 advantage. Mountain Pointe closed the margin to 10-9, but four errors of varying types were the biggest chunk of Basha's final five points. The other point was a Spann kill.

It was a frustrating match to be sure for Mountain Pointe coach Karen Gray. 

"This has been the story of our last two weeks," Gray said. "... We let it slip through our fingers. We made two many errors, mostly hitting errors. Justine's a good hitter, She was on fire at the end."

Terri Span realizes how much Basha depends on Justine and the Bears are working on spreading the ball more.

"Justine gets twice as many sets or more than the next two on either team," Terri Span said. "When teams cheat to Justine there are one-on-ones and no one on the others at times. We're working to take advantage of that."

Lending support to Justine Spann on the attack were Morgan Soto (13), Malinas (six kiills) and Raquel Valliere (six kills).