Red Mtn.'s Timmy Allen (4) scores one of his two 1st-half baskets in win over Mtn. View. (AzPreps365 photo)

Packing it in defensively is a sound way to defend Red Mountain with the presence of tall and powerful stalwarts Timmy Allen and Andre Harris. Mountain View was able to defeat Red Mountain nine days ago in overtime with that plan.

In their 6A East Valley Region rematch on Thursday night, Red Mountain foiled the strategy with the perimeter prowess of small guards Chris OItmans and Kai Murphy. The pair combined to sink eight 3s that were critical in the Mountain Lions 61-49 triumph at Red Mountain.

Red Mountain, No. 6 in the current power rankings, kept its hopes alive for sharing the region title with Mesa, improving to 16-9 overall and 7-2 in region. Mountain View, 10th in the power rankings, dropped to 13-10, 6-3 and had its season-best winning streak of three come to an end.

 "We had to come up with some kind of threat from outside," Red Mountain coach Chris Lemon said. "The last time we played we made four (3s) and one was at the very end. If you can show your a threat from outside at some point they have to respect it. If we can shoot more like that and marry it with defense we can be pretty tough."

Red Mountain and Mountain View played a nip-and-tuck first half with Red Mountain owning a 22-21 lead at the half. Oltmans, who served off the bench, began his contribution for the evening (15 points) with three second-quarter 3s. Murphy hit one of his three for the game in the first quarter and finished with nine points. Allen was limited to four points in the first half and Harris six. 

Mountain View was aware at the break a bit more attention needed to go Oltmans' and Murphy's way. Still the junior duo made four of six 3s in the second half and Allen revved up his game with 19 points in the second half for a game-high 23. Red Mountain outscored Mountain View 13-5 in the third quarter and the lead got to double digits in the fourth. Mountain View cut the margin to seven briefly in the final period - 40-33 - but the Mountain Lions were too focused on putting this one in the win column. Harris scored a pair of baskets inside off feeds from Allen in the final quarter to finish with 10 points.

"We did a better job pressuring them this time, and did it enough to get them out of the way they like to play," Lemon said. 

Adam Pierce led Mountain View with 17 points, including four 3s. Jackson Reavis came off the Toros' bench to tally 12 points. Mountain View scored almost half its points in the first meeting with Red Mountain from the free-throw line (34 of 38). The Toros were 3 of 8 from the line in the rematch.