Ernst back on Mtn. View bench, views OT win over Desert Mtn.

Mesa Mountain View got coach Gary Ernst back on its bench Wednesday night and welcomed him back with a nail-biter.

The Toros boys basketball team was forced to overtime by relentless Desert Mountain, but finally prevailed with a 73-67 win at Toro Gymnasium.

Ernst, who missed the last three games (all Mountain View wins) to tend to a blood clot that developed in his left leg, watched a couple big defensive plays by sophomore center Payton Dastrup and precision free-throw shooting in overtime from Mitch Wallace to ward off Desert Mountain (15-6 overall and 8-4 in power-point games).

Desert Mountain almost won it in regulation. The Wolves worked the ball for the final 55 seconds. Reserve forward Connor Johnson got an open 10-footer with two seconds left that dipped in and spun out to bring on overtime.

Dastrup, who made a youthful mistake of following up an offensive foul with a technical early in the fourth quarter with Mountain View (13-6, 9-2 ppg) owning its biggest lead of the night at 52-45, blocked two shots early in overtime. Wallace did his part making 10-of-10 free throws in the extra period.

Wallace, who finished with a team-high 21 points, made the first four of those overtime free throws in the first two minutes. Senior forward Cam Boone (20 points, 15 in the second half) followed with his fourth dunk of the game at the 1:43 mark for 65-59 lead. Desert Mountain got no closer than three points the rest of the way. Both times Wallace extended the lead to five with a pair of free throws.

"It felt like the first game of the season again to me," Ernst said. "They give us a tough time. We have to have our bigs guard them outside because they shoot the three so well. We had them down 11 with a minute and a half left at their place ,and they got it down to three. They are hard to handle defensively."

Desert Mountain senior forward Ausin Cooke, who hounded Mountain View in the earlier meeting (59-54 loss), was back at it again. Cooke finished with a game-high 24 points. He missed his first five shots and proceeded to connect on eight of his next nine. Five of his field goals were threes. His only miss from early in the second period through regulation was a desperation shot from beyond half court as the first half ended.

"We were looking to get him the ball," Desert Mountain coach Todd Fazio said. "Once he sticks one, he's good to go. He's got the green light from out there. They wore us down a little at the end, but we made them work for it."

Dastrup joined Wallace and Boone in double figures with 12 points. Tyler Conger chimed in with 13 points for Desert Mountain, which made nine 3s in the game.