Boys hoops: Paradise Valley escapes with 46-43 win over Mountain View

January 12, 2016 by Andy Morales, AZPreps365


CJ VanBeekum (andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

Paradise Valley held on to defeat Marana Mountain View 46-43 Tuesday night to remain undefeated (11-0) in power-ranking games. Ranked No. 2 in the current Division II AIA/MaxPreps rankings, the Trojans are 16-2 overall with their two losses coming during invitationals.

The Mountain Lions are ranked 34th and missed a great chance to make a drastic move up heading into sectional play. Mountain View is 9-6 overall and 4-6 in ranking games. The loss to Paradise Valley was the third loss in a row for the Mountain Lions and things will not get easier with games against Tucson, Ironwood Ridge, Nogales, Salpointe and Sunnyside on the horizon.

Simply, Mountain View let one get away and Paradise Valley stole one.

Mountain View was plagued by turnovers all night but Paradise Valley could not pull away and only led 12-11 after the first quarter and 23-21 at the half.

Trojan senior CJ VanBeekum averages 19 points a game but Mountain View limited him to 12 points with four of those coming in the fourth quarter.

Down 29-25 with 3:10 left in the third, Mountain View went on an 8-0 run to take a 33-29 lead heading to the fourth. A 3-pointer from Drew Cotton sparked the run but, as mentioned before, the Mountain Lions had problems taking care of the ball and collected ten turnovers in the fourth quarter alone.

The Mountain Lions committed four straight turnovers to start the final period and the Trojans cashed in and went on a 7-0 run to retake the lead at 36-33 with 6:54 left in the game.

Troy Shaw kept Mountain View in the game and scored a game-high 14 points with seven coming in the final five minutes. He hit three straight free throws to cut the Trojan lead down to 39-38 with 2:33 left but VanBeekum returned the favor and put Paradise Valley back up 43-38 after he made four free throws in a row with 1:16 left.

Shaw scored a bucket to cut the lead down to 43-40 with 1:03 left and then Paradise Valley committed a turnover. Dyvon Wilkins was fouled and he made an old-fashioned 3-point play to tie the game up at 43-43 with 44.7 seconds left.

Jacob Brown put the Trojans up 45-43 with 33.5 seconds left but another turnover gave the ball right back to Paradise Valley and CJ VanBeekum made one free throw to make the score 46-43 with 12.7 seconds left.

Rather than take a 3-pointer to tie the game, the Mountain Lions went for a layup with about 4 seconds on the clock. The shot was missed but Mountain View had one last chance with 1.1 seconds left. Cotton's attempt for the tie was just off the mark and Paradise Valley held on for the 46-43 win.

Besides Shaw's 14 points, Cotton had 11 and Wilkins added eight for Mountain View. VanBeekum had his 12 for Paradise Valley as did Terriq Tshaka. Dominic Rogiers scored 10 and Brown added eight.