Coming off of a surprising victory against Chaparral, the Mountain View Toros (18-10) were hoping to keep it going against the favored Desert Mountain Wolves. Desert Mountain (23-4) would be without their starting shooting guard Will Goff who was out due to an injury.
The game opened up with a Payton Dastrup basket inside. Mountain View would need a lot of these to have a chance in this one.
Desert Mountain’s offense came out a little bit confused against the Toros' 2-3 zone. The zone kept Desert Mountain's 6-foot junior point guard Rolando Rhymes out of the paint, which helped Mountain View stay out on the Desert Mountain shooters.
A relatively unexciting first quarter brought some action when senior guard Diego Magana hit a three pointer, as his teammate was fouled off the ball. This helped Desert Mountain control a 14-9 lead after one quarter.
The Wolves' offense came almost entirely from deep, as they hit four three-pointers in the quarter.
Mountain View forced Desert Mountain to beat them with the long ball in this game. Despite Mountain View’s solid defense throughout the second quarter, they struggled on offense. They seemed to never feed Dastrup in the post, even when he had a 1-on-1 matchup.
The score at the half was 24-15 Desert Mountain. 6-foot-4 junior guard Remy Smith hit three three-pointers off the bench, while Diego Magana added two of his own, in a half where the Wolves hit seven three-pointers.
Dastrup was effective in the post when he got the ball, however he didn’t get many touches and had six at the half.
The second half opened with both teams trading some baskets, until Dastrup hit his second three-pointer of the quarter to force a Desert Mountain timeout at the midway point - the score 29-23.
Despite Mountain View’s best efforts, Rolando Rhymes and the Wolves over-matched the Toros and went into the final quarter with a 45-29 lead. Rhymes scored 10 points in the quarter by being aggressive - noticing that Mountain View switched back to man.
Desert Mountain had control of the game throughout the fourth quarter, until a late run by the Toros made it a single-digit game. However, the Wolves were able to hold off the run and win the game 59-52.
Desert Mountain had contributors all around the court in this one. Rolando Rhymes scored 14 points in the game (12 in the second half), while Diego Magana and Remy Smith each hit four three-pointers in a game where Desert Mountain hit (11) long range shots.
For Mountain View, Payton Dastrup led all scorers with 19 points and collected 7 rebounds. Brian Butler added 11 for the Toros.
