Basha has seen zone defenses pretty much every time out this season. Some have been more effective than others. For a quarter and a little more, Red Mountain had its zone keeping Basha in line. By the end of the second quarter that changed and so did the direction of the contest.

Basha received strong play inside and enough perimeter effectiveness at the right time to pull away to a 52-34 win over Red Mountain in a Division I matchup at Red Mountain.

Strong forward Gabe McGlothan and shooting guard Terrell Brown propelled Basha to the lead at halftime after Red Mountain controlled the first 12 minutes or so. When 6-foot-9 senior Devin Kirby began asserting himself from the second period forward -- off the bench -- Red Mountain's chances of prevailing diminished.

"We've seen enough zone that we are getting pretty good against them," Grothaus said. "We have the ability to adjust and we're getting better all the time. I was really proud of our bigs tonight. To hold them to 34 points is a good night. They can score and hurt you from outside."

Brown led Basha (14-2 overall, 7-0 power-ranking games) with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Two of his three, 3-pointers (all in the second quarter helped the Bears to a modest lead. Brown's third trey in the quarter ocurred just ahead of the halftime buzzer to put Basha up 23-18. Other than those three baskets, all of Basha's scoring in the opening half came on layups or the offensive glass. McGlothan added 11 points and Kirby chipped in with nine.

"Our zone did a good job defending the first shot, but they got too many second, third and fourths," Red Mountain coach Todd Fazio said. "We didn't shoot well and that hurt. We got too stubborn at times doing things that weren't helping us.

"They have a deep team. When you bring a D-I player off the bench (Kirby), that tells you something. Right now, Basha is one of the standards in the division."

Red Mountain (8-7, 3-4 prg) forced nine turnovers in the first half and committed just two, but Basha's dominance on the offensive boards negated that edge. And Red Mountain did not shoot well other than the first 4-5 minutes. For the game Red Mountain made 12 of 43 shots (28 percent) while Basha was 22 of 38 (58 percent).

Andres Mayberry led Red Mountain with 11 points (nine in the first half). Desi Ethridge tossed in eight, but on 3-of-10 shooting as Basha's interior defense thwarted his abilityto create in the paint.

Basha plays host to Chandler on Thursday (Jan. 7) while Red Mountain next takes the floor Friday (Jan. 8) at home against Hamilton.