Christian Quezada is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain Ridge High School for AZPreps365.com

Three players finished with double-digit points as Mountain Ridge dominated Dobson at home on Wednesday night. The Mountain Lions tied a season-high in points beating the Mustangs, 79-65, at home, earning their fourth win of the season. 

Junior Micah Wilkerson led the way with 23 points. Juniors Anthony Kangah and Logan Hopkins each had 17.

Mountain Ridge coach Craig Marcus was pleased to see multiple players contribute.

“We’ve been talking this season on how can we get everyone on the same page on the same night,” Marcus said. “We had three of them that did really well and there’s a couple others we’d like to get in that same category. Once they do that we’ll be really good,” 

The Mountain Lions led by as much as 27 points in the second half. Dobson picked up the pace late to close the final margin to14 points. 

The Mustangs were able to stay within reach behind Quinten Phillips 33-point performance. The senior guard led all scorers and scored half of Dobson’s points, including 19 in the second half.

“Thirty-three points is a lot but we took the loss,” Phillips said. “The points is not what really matters to me...it's about how we ended and today it was a loss.” 

Dobson coach Rick McConnell thought Phillips was very productive but didn’t like his team falling behind early in the game. 

“We got ourselves down early and just put ourselves in a bad spot,” McConnell said. “We kind of got manhandled early on physically, but Quinten played really well”

The Mountain Lions came out with high intensity to start the game. Wilkerson scored nine of his team's first 13 points and he added 11 more in the second quarter.

 Dobson’s Phillips also scored nine points in the first quarter, knocking down three 3-pointers. Even with a spectacular shooting night from Phillips, the trio of Wilkerson, Kangah,and Hopkins were too much for the Mustangs to handle. 

Hopkins took charge in the third quarter, knocking down four 3-pointers and helping the Mountain Lions take a 25-point lead into the fourth quarter.

After an adjustment from McConnell, the Mustangs began to full-court press and create turnovers. 

“They didn’t shoot it as well when we pressed,” McConnell said. 

The Mustangs outscored the Mountain Lions 24-13 in the fourth quarter with Phillips scoring 15.

“We need to get better at taking care of the ball instead of throwing it to the other team,” Marcus said. “They started pressing us and turning up the tempo against us.”

Mountain Ridge (4-9) will play next at Pinnacle (6-8) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Dobson (4-10) will play at Mesa (12-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.