No. 13 Catalina Foothills beat No. 17 Mountain View Marana 73-61 Tuesday night to wrestle control of the 5A Southern Region away from the Mountain Lions with a couple of region games left but the victory also kept the Falcons alive for a home game in the 5A Play-In Tournament slated for Friday, Feb. 16.

Catalina Foothills (11-5 in power-ranking games) will travel to No. 38 Ironwood Ridge (2-15) before finishing the regular season with a game against No. 19 Cholla (12-4) Friday night. Mountain View (11-5) will play at Cholla Thursday night before hosting No. 36 Marana (2-14) Friday night.

Mountain View beat Catalina Foothills 64-56 on Jan. 16 at home and the Lions could have clinched a region title Tuesday night but the Falcons control their own destiny in the region now based on a higher ranking but it’s important to note region standings have no bearing on the playoffs in the 4A, 5A and 6A Conferences with the Open Division set to start on Feb. 14.

Still, a region title is an important mark but the Falcons took control of the game on a 12-0 run over the last 4:44 of the first quarter and first 15 seconds of the second quarter to take an 18-8 lead. That 5-minute spurt was almost squandered with the Lions pulling off a 10-1 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Brayden Escobar, to cut the lead down to 19-18 with 5:08 left in the half.

Mountain View had several chances to retake the lead down the stretch before half but the Falcons started to pull away to a take a 34-24 lead with 6:12 left in the third. Catalina Foothills eventually went up 49-34 with 2:20 left in the third with a 20-point lead coming at 62-42 with 4:50 left in the game. The Falcons coasted from there for the 73-61 final.

AB Mendoza and Jack Eggington scored 24 points each to lead the Falcons, Cam Kroeger added 12 and Jack Van Amburg scored eight. Christian Pundt and Isaiah Romero scored 15 each for Mountain View, Rowan Lemons and Escobar had 10 points each and Joaquin Meek had eight.

Jack Egginton. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)