After her players ran through a celebratory “tunnel’’ created by the school’s spirit line, Phoenix Xavier prep basketball coach Chantel Vinson decided to give it a go herself, and mixed in a few disco-type moves.

And why not?

“This is the team I’ve been looking for all season,’’ she said after Xavier used a big fourth quarter to stop Mesa Mountain View 49-40 in Tuesday’s (Feb. 5) opening round of the Division I Section III tournament at Scottsdale Chaparral.

She has relied on a core group of seven players, but the Gators also have had a few concussions, battled the flu and endured other various bumps and bruises. They now appear to be healthy at just the right time.

“It seems like we’ve always been scrambling. We haven’t really been able to put four quarters together,’’ Vinson said. “Now we’re really starting to play like we’re capable of.’’

It took awhile to do it, however. Henry Bribiescas-coached Mountain View hung tough until late in the fourth quarter. The Lady Toros had a 40-38 lead with about 2 ½ minutes left after a 3-pointer by Morgan Pennell.

Xavier (20-8), the fourth seed, finished with an 11-0 flourish.

A basket by McKenna Renfro tied it at 40, and a 3-pointer by Ashley Orozco put the Gators back in front to stay.

Mountain View (18-8), the fifth seed, had defeated Xavier 46-36 on Dec. 10. Vinson said one of her guards, Ashley McGinn, suffered a concussion in that game, team leader Katie Werner fouled out and the team missed 16 free throws.

She figured Xavier would wind up playing Mountain View at some point, maybe even the first round of the sectional. She knew that the ever-vigilant Bribiescas would be looking at tape, trying to find any advantage he could, so she held off on using some tactics that she normally would have tried, until this game.

Xavier also used more of a man-to-man defense this time as opposed to a zone in the previous meeting, and that helped, particularly down the stretch.

Now the Gators must focus on Thursday’s semifinal opponent, Phoenix Pinnacle, which defeated host Chaparral 50-29 in the game that followed. Two other games were played at Scottsdale Desert Mountain.

Werner led Xavier with 20 points and Orozco had 12. Cherokee Davis led Mountain View with 15 points and Armani Hawkins had 11.

State tournament qualifying

Division I, II, III, & IV State Tournament (24 team bracket): Four (4) teams from each of the three sections for a total of 12 teams will earn an automatic bid based on how they finish within their sectional tournament. The final 12 spots will be based on overall seeding. The bracket will be seeded according to overall seeding of the 24 teams. Teams seeded #1 to #8 will get a first round bye. The tournament will consist of five rounds and will be single elimination