Mountain View grounds Deer Valley boys' title hopes

The Deer Valley boys basketball knows heartbreak for the second straight season. View Deer Valley-Marana Mtn. Last year, the No. 9 seed Skyhawks were ousted in the first round of the 5A Division II state championship tournament by eighth-seeded Shadow Mountain. This year, Mountain View-Marana spoiled the Skyhawks? chances, handing Deer Valley a 62-60 home loss. ?It?s disappointing to lose early like this in back-to-back years,? said Skyhawks Coach John Fellens. The Mountain Lions kept the Skyhawks under their 70.1 season scoring average by containing half of Deer Valley?s shooting duo ? choosing to buckle down on junior Mirza Sabic, who averages 20.3 per game but finished with just 11 points, over junior Marcus Ruppel who poured in a game high 25. ?If we know we?re facing a good defensive team the game is going to be a battle for us,? Fellens said. ?We knew that was Mountain View?s game. They are a low-scoring, control-the-clock team, and I think we got frustrated toward the end. We started settling for shots.? It wasn?t that Sabic didn?t have the shots. Junior guard Josh Kinney worked the ball into the low post often enough for Sabic, but Mountain View?s Aaron Anderson was often there either deflecting passes or coming up with key blocks. However, no block was bigger than in the waning seconds of the game. With 13.9 second remaining and the Skyhawks down 62-60, Kinney took the in-bound pass, fired it over to guard Alfred Bowden who quickly tossed it back. As the second ticked away, Kinney threw into Sabic at the free throw line. The Mountain Lions doubled down on the six-foot-five guard, and Sabic spotted an open Kinney who shuffled over a few steps, took the pass and launched a three with about two seconds on the clock. But Anderson closed the gap fast, leapt and swatted Kinney?s shot, leaving just .2 seconds on the clock for the Skyhawks. ?That was a huge block at the end by (Anderson),? Fellens said. ?It wasn?t the shot we were looking for, but when it opened up we had to take it.? Deer Valley still had a shot to force overtime. The in bound pass went high, giving Ruppel a free chance at the tip in, but his attempt rolled left off the rim. ?In the end, we just couldn?t control the game,? Fellens said. ?We didn?t limit their shots and they got good looks. To Mountain View?s credit they came out in the second half with their backs against the wall and caught some fire. Unfortunately, I think we just hit a wall.? And while the Mountain Lions were working the pass to find high percentage shots, Deer Valley was settling for the quick jumper. That may have been due to Mountain View battling back from a 13-point deficit early in the third quarter and zapping some of the Skyhawks? focus. That seemed apparent when forward Nick Souders was whistled with a technical foul for showing frustration with 4:09 remaining the quarter. The Mountain Lions? Ben Johnson hit the front end of the technical, trimming the lead to seven, 44-37. Ruppels responded with a short jumper, but Anderson answered that shot quickly with his own. The junior forward led the Mountain Lions with 17 points and four rebounds. Kinney followed that up with a base line drive capped by a lay up with a little more than two minutes remaining in the quarter. Mountain View blanked the Skyhawks over the final two minutes of the quarter by shutting down the inside passing lanes, and forcing Deer Valley to take quick shots. ?We needed to keep our focus and pass with purpose,? Fellens said. ?At that point of the game we can?t create turnovers that?s not our own doing. What it boiled down to was that we didn?t execute what we wanted to do on offense and later on that came back to bite us.? Leading 48-42 as the fourth quarter began, Skyhawks Sabic and Ruppels hit a pair of early shots ? Ruppels was a deep three ? to push the lead 53-45. But the Mountain Lions answered with an 11-2 run that gave them their first lead since the first quarter. ?Early on, we were able to attack the basket and get points on transition,? Fellens said. ?Later, we just broke down and turned those fast break opportunities into turnovers. ?Either way, I?m proud of my guys. They battled to the end, and were not quitters.?