Desert Mountain basketball coach Todd Fazio said he didn't want to be Al Downing.

Al Downing was the pitcher that gave up Hank Aaron's 715th home run. So what Fazio meant was he didn't want to be the coach on the losing end of Mesa Mountain View coach Gary Ernst's record-breaking 775th win.

Fazio got his wish Wednesday night as Desert Mountain made up for two tight  losses to Mountain View earlier this season by dealing the Toros a 44-39 defeat in the first round of the Divsion I, Section III tournament at Desert Mountain High School.

"We were very aware," Fazio said after taking in some fresh air outside Desert Mountain's lockerroom a few minutes after the huge win for the Wolves. "We talked a lot about it to the kids. We knew they were going for the record for coach Ernst. I was honored to be a part of the game, but I didn't want to be Al Downing."

Desert Mountain (18-8), which entered the game as the 24th team in the power-rankings, was on  the bubble to make the state tournament if it didn't win Wednesday. The Wolves took care of that with the momentous win and can only move up more with a win or two in the coming three days before the power-rankings are computed late Saturday for state seeding. Desert Mountain faces Brophy, a 68-67 winner over Mountain Point,e in Friday's sectional semis at Chaparral High Desert Mountain moved up to 18th in the power-rankings with its win over Mountain View.

For Moutain View (20-70 it means the Toros will be off until Feb. 16 and the first round of state when Ernst gets another shot at 775, which would put him ahead all-time in the state in boys basketball wins past retired Sahuaro coach Dick McConnell.

"If you told me before the game that they'd only make two threes I'd have thought we won," Ernst said. "They beat us tonight with mid-range jumpers. We didn't defend those well. We had chances at the end to make shots, missed some free throws and turned the ball over. It wasn't the way we've played the last three or four weeks."

The main culprits for Desert Mountain in this one were guards Anthony Tepedino and forward Tyler Conger. Tepedino struck for a team-high 16 points, the bulk of which were the mid-range jumpers Ernst alluded to. Tepedino had seven points in the final period. His last two baskets were a jumper that gave Desert Mountain a 39-36 lead with 3:50 left and a steal and layup with 2:28 left that pushed the lead to five.

Conger did his damage early with all eight of his points in the first half, three on layups that were few fo either team on the night.

Ernst said he may give his team Thursday off to refocus and then have five or six practices to get back in the swing for  state.

"I think our guys may need a little time off," Ernst said. "We will have to play better come next week.  We've shown we can play better. Tonight we didn't. They beat us."