One of Mesa High's or Hamilton's girls basketball teams needed to produce a run that would decide their tightly-played game on Wednesday night.

The decisive run arrived the first four minutes of the final quarter. It was fashioned by Mesa. The Jackrabbits used a 12-4 burst at crunch time to came away with a 53-45 win at Jackrabbit Gym.

Mesa improved to 11-7 overall and 8-2 in power-ranking games. Hamilton suffered its first power-ranking loss of the season. The Huskies, who opened the season 11-0, are 14-2, 6-1 prg. The Jackrabbits and Huskies along with the rest of the schools in the state get a first look Thursday at their respective conference power rankings. Those rankings will be posted by noon on the Azpreps365 website. 

Four- and five-point leads - no more - were the rule until Mesa's run in the fourth. Hamilton led 33-32 to begin the fourth period. Nine consecutive points - six by Mesa's standout senior guard Ashiian Hunter - put the Jackrabbits ahead to stay with 4:09 to play. Hamilton trimmed the deficit to 44-40 with less than three minutes to go. However, Mesa connected on 7 of 11 free throws in the last two minutes. Hamilton did not make another basket the last two minutes-plus ending its comeback bid.

Hunter led Mesa with 13 points and reserve Amya Bekele added 12 of the 15 points the Jackrabbits scored from non-starters - eight in the first half. Game-scoring honors went to Hamilton junior Ella Malee (14 points) and  the Huskies leading scorer Samantha Creal added 13. Malee scored 10 of her points in the second half and Creal 11 of her 13 after halftime.

Mesa plays its next game on the road Saturday at Dobson - an East Valley Region affair. Mesa is 3-0 in region and Dobson will be playing its first region game. Tipoff for the game is 2 p.m. Hamilton is idle until Jan. 10 when it hosts Sunnyslope.