Oro Valley Ironwood Ridge defeated Vail Cienega 45-44 on a night full of emotion and purpose.  The Nighthawks were making their first home appearance in a season full of losses but none as important as the passing of head coach Mark Felix's father Hector.                             

An 0-4 start at the Tucson Salpointe Tipoff Classic was followed by losses at Nogales, Chandler Basha and Sierra Vista Buena. Over 250 miles later, the Nighthawks were finally coming home, without their coach.

Hector Felix was 86 years old when he passed away on Sunday, Dec. 7. Hector had six children, 19 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. His funeral was held earlier in the day on Friday and the Ironwood Ridge players dedicated their game against Cienega to his memory.

In contrast, Cienega's season has been one full of wins but there was still cause for concern according to head coach Matt Johnson. Even though the Bobcats went 4-0 and won the championship of the preseason Southwest Rotary Classic in Yuma before beating a powerful Tucson Catalina Foothills team on the road and then Buena at home, Johnson felt his squad lacked consistency.

"We still need to learn how to play together," said Johnson. "Decision making is crucial. We are looking to play solid every night but it's been a rollercoaster.  We told them Ironwood Ridge would catch us and we got outplayed tonight."

Ironwood Ridge assistant coach Ryan Bais is better known as the championship tennis and golf coach at the school but he gave up coaching tennis in order to sit on the bench and be an assistant to Felix after Felix moved over from Catalina Foothills two years ago.

Bais accepted the head coaching duties against Ironwood Ridge in Felix's absence along with other assistants Helmut Siefert and Ryan McHenry. Their game plan appeared to be simple enough but the realities of the matchup were probably not in their favor.

"We wanted to slow the game down and not get into a footrace," explained Bais. "This was a huge win for us and we are proud of the guys for following the plan. All credit goes to them."

According to Bais, Siefert introduced a new set that helped take advantage of the heart of the Bobcat defense and it worked several times in the final moments, especially when they needed it the most.

Down 44-43 with nine seconds left in the game, senior guard Anthony Marshall drove straight down the right side of the Cienega defense and only a foul with two seconds left prevented him from making a layup on the same move he completed only a minute earlier.

Marshall was fouled and made the bucket on his previous drive to tie the game at 41-41 but he missed the ensuing free throw that would have given Ironwood Ridge the lead.

Jordan Green made a free throw at the other end to give Cienega a 42-41 lead with 26.8 seconds left but Austin Aguilar was fouled by Cienega a second later and he made two free throws to give Ironwood Ridge a 43-42 lead. It was the team's first lead since taking a 21-20 lead at the half.

After a timeout, Cienega junior Frankie Trujillo drove the baseline and gave the Bobcats a 44-43 lead setting up Marshall's heroics.

Marshall calmly sank the first free throw and the Ironwood Ridge players on the court held a minor celebration because they knew there would at least be an overtime with the scored tied at 44-44.

After another timeout, Marshall made his second shot for the 45-44 win.

Isaiah Murphy led Cienega with 11 points, Daren Briggs had 10 and Trujillo added eight. Aguilar led all scorers with 15, Marshall finished with 11 and James Lathrop scored eight for Ironwood Ridge.

Cienega (7-1) visits Tucson Sunnyside (9-2) next Wednesday while Ironwood Ridge (1-7) will host Phoenix Mountain Pointe (5-6) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 5 pm.