Mountain View Marana went 3-0 to win the Pima Bracket Championship at the Aztec Holiday Classic hosted by Pima Community College this past week. The Mountain Lions held on to beat Buena 65-64 Saturday afternoon in the final.

Mountain View (10-4 overall, 4-3 in ranking games) beat Buena (7-4, 5-3) in overtime in a regular season game last week at Buena with the Mountain Lions pulling that victory out 73-65. In this game, Mountain View gave up a couple of big leads before erasing a late surge by Buena and then then Mountain Lions survived a last-second game-winning attempt by the Colts.

Buena standout Jesus pacheco goes up for a shot. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Mountain View made eight 3-pointers in the final with a shot from Isaiah Romero giving the Mountain Lions an 18-12 lead with 10:00 minutes left in the first half but Kingston Clarke and Mason Gordon returned the favor and a shot from Alex Moore gave Buena a brief 20-19 lead with 7:40 left in the half.

Mountain View went on a 14-6 run to take a 33-26 lead with 3:05 left but a 3-pointer from Gordon and RJ Molina tied the game back up at 34-34 with 1:45 left. Rowan Lemons went on to make a shot with 5.6 seconds left to give Mountain View a 42-39 lead at the half. The Colts went on a 9-0 run from there, capped by another 3-pointer from Gordon, and Buena led 48-42 with 12:41 left in the game.

Buena held a 54-48 lead with 8:52 left but Christian Pundt scored four straight points and Chase Reidhead hit a 3 to give Mountain View a 55-54 lead with 7:27 left. Buena went back up 62-58 with 4:30 left and 64-62 with 2:10 left but another 3 from Romero put Mountain View back up 65-64 with 2:01 left. The Colts missed two free throws with 50.9 seconds left but the Mountain Lions gave the ball right back on a turnover with 20.5 seconds left, still up 65-64.

The Colts worked the ball to the corner with 3.1 seconds left but Lemons blocked a potential game-winner from Gordan to survive that threat. Gordan finished with a game-high 20 points, paced by six 3-pointers, but the Colts had one more chance. Buena worked the ball underneath as time expired but a missed shot gave Mountain View the victory.

Romero led Mountain View with 19 points, Lemons had 18, Pundt added eight and Joaquin Meek scored five. Gordan had his 20 for Buena, Jamin Booker scored 16, Jesus Pacheco scored 10 and Molina scored nine.

Buena will take part in the Fat Lever Santa Cruz Shootout hosted by Pueblo starting on Thursday, Dec. 28 and Mountain View will play at Desert View (1-13, 0-7) on Jan. 9.

Tucson High (12-1, 9-1) beat Sahuaro 48-45 to win the Aztec Bracket at Pima. Sahuaro (13-2, 9-0) will host Flowing Wells (1-13, 0-10) on Jan. 8 and Tucson is taking part in the Epic Tourneys Classic next week.

Mountain View's Isaiah Romero with a shot. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)