Brooks shines, but Red Mountain wins

27 January 2012 No Comments Kyle Odegard

I went and caught the Red Mountain-Desert Ridge game tonight because I had yet to see Jaguars guard Derreck Brooks this season, and he didn’t disappoint.

The Grand Canyon University signee hit 14-of-21 shots from the field for 38 points, although the Lions used good balance to win the Division I matchup, 69-62 at Red Mountain.

Brooks scored 20 points in a row at one point in the first half and kept the Jaguars in the game until the Lions used a 15-4 second-half run to push a six-point lead to 17.

Desert Ridge fought back to within eight points with 48.9 seconds remaining, but there wasn’t enough time to complete the comeback.

The Jaguars are on the postseason bubble, and coach Greg Ream said the team needs to play with the same sense of urgency next week that it did late in the contest.

“If they can give that effort for four quarters, we’ll be all right,” he said.

Justin Park had 17 points and Logan Larsen added 13 points and 11 assists for Red Mountain, which is currently fifth in the Division I power point standings.

Red Mountain had four different players in double figures.

“You pick your poison,” Ream said. “It’s definitely tough to figure out how to guard them.”

Red Mountain isn’t often discussed as one of the premier teams in the state, but is right in the running for one of the top-eight power point seeds, which would earn it a first round bye in the state tournament.

Red Mountain coach Greg Sessions said he pays attention to the standings, but the Lions don’t put too much emphasis on it.

“The nice thing about having a bunch of senior kids is they never get too high and never get too low,” Sessions said. “They just come back tomorrow and keep working hard.”

Red Mountain (19-7) ends the season with games against Highland and Mountain View next week.

Desert Ridge (13-11) finishes against Perry and Mesquite, and at No. 21 in the power point standings, would like to win both games to give itself some breathing room. There are 12 automatic bids to the state tournament with the other 12 spots going to at-large teams with the best power point rankings.