Overtime was infectious Thursday night at the 6th annual VisitiMesa.com Basketball Challenge. The teams that reveled in those extra four minutes the most were Desert Vista and Mesa Mountain View.

An enjoyable tournament for Desert Vista's Greg Carter continued as Carter poured in 28 points on an economy of shots as the Thunder rebounded in overtime to defeat Red Mountain, 71-66, for their second tourney win at Mountain View High School

Not to be outdone 90 minutes later, Mountain View rallied from a 20-point deficit in the second half for a 72-67 triumph over Gilbert, the more improbable win of the two games.

Carter, who tallied 30 points Wednesday in a Day 1 victory over Lexington, (SC), guided Desert Vista to the win column in the extra session after Red Mountain came back from 15 points down midway through the second half to lead late in regulation. Desert Vista's Avery Brunson sank a 3 with 10 seconds left to get the Thunder to extra time.

From there, Carter took charge. The senior point guard tallied nine of Desert Vista's 11 overtime points. After Red Mountain took a 64-60 lead a little more than two minutes into overtime  --thanks mainly to a 3 by Red Mountain's Derek Rojas, Carter went on a 9-0 run. It started with a three-point play, followed by two free throws and a pair of runners to put Desert Vista (9-6) up, 69-64, with 40 seconds left. Carter, who was 6-of-14 from the field and 18-of-21 from the free-throw line in Wednesday's win, connected on 10-of-15 shots from the field and 5-of-7 from the line. Kyle Pittman chipped in with 13 points for the Thunder and Brunson had 10.

Freshman Desi Ethridge and Diego Hernandez keyed Red Mountain's rally from a 52-37 deficit in the second half. Ethridge scored 9 of his 12 points in the second half and Hernandez all seven of his points. Rojas, Ethridge and Colton Plourd led Red Mountain (10-6) with 12 points each. Leading scorer Travis Meeker had a tough shooting night (2-of-13) and finished with five points. 

Mountain View's victory was very close to a miracle. The Toros (8-5) led briefly in the first four minutes of the game, but trailed mostly by double digits the rest of the game. Rediscovering a shooting touch that has plagued its perimeter shooters much of this month, Mountain View gradually whittled the deficit to 10 with five minutes left in regulation. The Toros erased a 59-51 deficit in the final 1:23. It took a Colton Meo, off-balance, desperation 3 at the buzzer to send the game to OT. Gilbert's Conner Helvig, who led the Tigers with 20 points, made nine consecutive free throws in the final 2:48 of regulation before missing one with 4.7 seconds left. Mountain View center Payton Dastrup (23 points, 14 rebounds) grabbed the rebound and fired the ball to Meo, who frantically raced to front court and fired off  the tying 3 that swished. Meo finished with 14 points. The Toros got their biggest lift offensively from Brian Butler. Butler netted 18 of his 20 points in the second half.

Rock Shill's 3 -- the last of 10 the Toros would sink in the game -- with 3:10 left in overtime gave Mountain Viewa 66-65 lead. They never trailed again.

In action that began Day 2 of the tournament, Pinnacle built a 42-21 lead at halftime and went on to top Waterloo Collegiate Institute (Canada), 70-42. Dorian Pickens a balanced Pinnacle attack with 19 points and Trey Ingram added 14 points. Waterloo was led by Dani Elgadi (11 points) and Malcolm Piazza (10 points). Pinnacle rested standout guard Drew Bender (ankle) after he played in Wednesday's tourney opener. Bender may return to action Friday night in the Pioneers 7 p.m. showdown with Corona del Sol. Pinnacle is 9-4 on the season and 2-0 in the tourney.

Corona del Sol ran its record to 11-1 on the season and 2-0 in the tournament by defeating Gilbert Christian, 62-46. After trailing by five early in the first half, Corona rallied for a 30-18 lead at intermission and stayed steadily on top throughout the second half. Sophomore post Cassius Peat scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds for Corona. Casey Benson (15 points), Braden Tennyson (11 points) and Bryan Siefker (10 points) rounded out the Aztecs double-figure scorers. Sam Jones pace Gilbert Christian with 16 points and Cameron Satterwhite added 12, hitting four 3s off the bench. Gilbert Christian is 12-2 overall and 0-2 in the tournament.

A trio of all out-of-state matchups comprised the middle portion of the Day 2 schedule. Pacific Hills (West Hollywood, CA) led most the way, including double digits in the second half, but hung on to win 73-67 over Churchill (Eugene, OR). Churchill, led in scoring by Keidren Johnson (19 points,) suffered its first loss of the season to fall to 7-1 and is 1-1 in the tournament. Pacific Hills got 31 points from Jahmel Tayor and 25 from Marcus Jackson, is 8-2 overall, 2-0 in the tournament. St. John's Jesuit (Toledo, OH) broke into the tournament win column with a 62-61 overtime triumph over Mercer Island, (WA). Marc Loving paced St. John's Jesuit (7-2) with 32 points. St. John's Jesuit lost its opener Wednesday on a last-second shot. The loss was the first of the season for Mercer Island (8-1), which had Kaleb Warner score 19 points and Joe Rasmussen net 18.

In the final game of the night, Dobson broke into the tournament win column with a 79-58  thrashing of Salpointe. Dobson is 10-4 on the season and Salpointe drops to 10-5 and 0-2 in the torurnament.