The evening of Monday, Feb. 22, outside Prescott High School’s ubiquitous dome was positively balmy compared to the frigid display of shooting going on inside.

Through more than three quarters of undefeated Coconino High School’s 42-35 win over the host Badgers, it appeared that both teams’ 38 percent average from the field would hurt the third-ranked Panthers more than Prescott, third place in the 4A Conference’s Grand Canyon Region.

“They’ve got better athletes: they can play,” Coconino head coach Mike Moran said after gutting out a season sweep of the Badgers despite trailing for all of the second and third quarters. “Prescott’s so much improved. We were lucky to get away with a victory.”

Fortunately for Moran, he has two captains this year who know how to come from behind and win in the end.

“That’s what it’s all about this time of year,” he said after his defense forced eight steals. “Everybody’s tired. We’ve got four games this week.”

And another week of games to win to wrap up the Grand Canyon Region, including two with second-place Bradshaw Mountain High School. Prescott, with the loss, dropped out of the top 16 of the Arizona Interscholastic Association's power rankings and needs to take advantage of its home-heavy end of schedule in order to secure a postseason bid.

Jacob Begay’s three of his 10 points on the night, on a shot deep on the baseline, brought the Panthers back from six points down to a 29-28 deficit heading into the fourth quarter, then fellow senior guard Preston Olney converted one of nine Coconino steals on the night for his only basket off the break--and a 32-29 lead he would never relinquish.

“They’re our go-to guys,” Moran said. “They got control of the game back.”

Hayden Nez had 8 points and 7 rebounds to get Coconino out to the early first-quarter advantage, while fellow senior forward Manuel Cardoza led all scorers with 12 points.

“He’s so strong,” Moran said. “He makes the difference inside for us. We couldn’t play without Manuel.”

But they were bothered much of the night by the superior height of the Prescott front line, lined with six-foot, five-inch stretch post Jonas Carman and six-foot, four-inch forwards Jason Parent and Scooter Schwartz, all juniors who outrebounded the Panthers and converted second-chance opportunities.

“They posted up so intelligently,” Moran said. “Their switching man-to-man [defense] was very physical with us. Their players beat us up.”

A strategy which kept the Badgers within two points until less than a minute to play, when their 10 second-half fouls triggered the double bonus, which the Panthers converted on four out of five trips to make up for six earlier misses from the charity stripe.

Prescott guard Benji Black scored his team’s only field goal in the final 2 ½ minutes, as the Badgers could only convert on 3 of 17 three-point shots on the night, sealing their fate.

“We didn’t play our best game, but we pulled it out,” Moran said.  “Winning here in Prescott, I’ll take it, no matter what happens.”