Mesa Mtn. View finishes strong with triumph over Red Mtn

February 3, 2012 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Sectional seeding. First-round state tournament bye. Momentum to postseason. Brown Road bragging rights.

All those things were in play Friday night when Mesa Mountain View and Red Mountain closed out the boys basketball regular season at Red Mountain.

The winner in this battle came up Mountain View. The Toros behind the scoring of its bigs -- Cam Boone and Payton Dastrup and defense of the perimeter -- pullled away late for a 58-42 win in a Division I game at Red Mountain.

Mountain View (20-6, 16-2 power-point games) stretched its winning streak to 11 games and in doing so avenged its last loss. That was to Red Mountain (20-8, 13-5 ppg)) on Jan. 4 at Mountain View.

Mountain View entered the game seventh overall in the power-point rankings and Red Mountain was ninth. Both have safely qualified for next week's sectionals. Exactly where both will be seeded next week in their eight-team sectionals won't be known for sure until Saturday morning. 

Early indications have Red Mountain the sixth-seed in Section 2 and likely to face No. 3 seed Ironwood Ridge. Mountain View is headed for the No. 2 seed in Section 3 and likely a third-meeting with Desert Mountain. Although Westwind Prep is actually the No. 6 seed in Section 3, it is on probation this season and is not eligible for the postseason. That bumps No. 7 Mountain Pointe to 6 and No. 8 Desert Mountain to No. 7 in Section 3. 

"I think we got shots we wanted and made them," Mountain View coach Gary Ernst said. "Last time it was the other way around. We shot better this time. They shot better last time."

Boone, the senior leader of the defending state champs, powered his way to 24 points deep in the paint. Dastrup, who didn't score in the first meeting between the teams, hit for 15 points. He scored eight of Mountain View's 10 points in the first period, making all four shots he took from 8 to 15 feet. Although he didn't score again until the fial period, he finished 7-of-7 from the floor. Boone and Dstrup combined for 19 of Mountain View's 22 first-half points.

"He's come along," Ernst said. of the 6-foot-8 sophomore. "After the first two games I sat him down. Didn't play him in the third game. He's become much more consistent."

Red Mountain played catch up all night, but stayed within striking distance. The Lions trailed between four and 10 points most of the way. Down 10 early in the final period, they whittled Mountain View's lead to 46-41 with 2:38 left. But  missing the front end of a one-and-one and  getting a good look on anothr shot, they failed to get closer. Mountain View went on a 12-1 run to end the game.

"We had difficulty putting the ball where we wanted to," Red Mountain coach Greg Sessions said. "I think that was the main difference. Dastrup made some shots early this time, but that didn't  change the way we guarded Boone."

Justin Park led Red Mountain with 12 points and was the main reason the Mountain Lions stayed close in the first half with nine points of those points. Travis Meeker came off the bench to tally 10 for Red Mountain.

Red Mountain usually cans its share of threes on a nightly basis. The Mountain Lions connected on a season-low one on Friday. Mountain View made four 3-pointers -- two from Mitch Wallace, who was a third Toro in double-figure scoring  with 10 points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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