Anthony Ziola

Jose Romero

JMC 302

Westwood overcame a slow start and made it a close game late, but Mountain View came away with a 58-52 win in a basketball battle of Mesa schools.

Mountain View won the fourth quarter 17-11 to break a tie. “We had confidence at the line, made all our free throws and continued what we were doing," Toros senior Kalbe Doka said.

Mountain View coach Gary Ernst said Doka and Cooper Richeson are his main scorers. "(They are) usually our consistent scorers, so we kind of expected it out of those two and we have to have those two guys scoring points," he said.

Doka scored 12 points and Richeson scored 11.

Tory Powell, the head coach of Westwood, was proud of his team's effort against a solid team. “We have been practicing really well the last two weeks and obviously when you practice well you play better. We went into a little funk midway throgh the season and could not figure things out. By practicing really well the results are showing,” he said.

Doka said limiting turnovers was key.

He scored eight points in the first quarter and helped Mountain View to a 17-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. A deep three by Derick Kaps ended the first quarter. The Mountain View crowd exploded after that play.

An 11-4 run by Westwood gave them the lead 27-25 late in the second quarter. It was a huge momentum shift for Westwood. Andrew Brimley, Westwood’s senior point guard, scored eight points in the second quarter. Timmy Johnson added six points in the quarter. It was tied at halftime.

Cory Jasinski carried the Warriors, scoring nine of their 13 points in the third quarter. It was enough to have the game tied at the end of the third quarter, 41-41.

The difference in the fourth quarter was Mountain View making their free throws, especially when Westwood fouled them at the end of the game. Westwood got into the bonus with 6:18 left in the fourth quarter but could not take advantage by getting to the line. Mountain View made five straight free throws after being up 53-50 in the final minutes of the game

Westwood is 5-18  overall and 0-8 in section play. Mountain View moved to 13-9 and 5-2 in section play. Westwood’s next game is at San Luis High School on Friday night, its final road game of the season.