Red Mountain High School has been in existence for 24 years, but it took until Saturday night for the Mountain Lions to earn a home state tournament game in boys basketball.

It was worth the wait as third-seed Red Mountain got a free throw from Justin Park with 5.5 seconds left for a 48-47 victory over No. 19 seed Mountain Pointe in the second round of the Divsion I state tournament.

Red Mountain (23-9) moves on to Tuesday's quarterfinals at ASU's Wells Fargo Arena for a 4:15 p.m. contest against Cesar Chavez. Chavez advanced by beating Buena, 65-53. Mountain Pointe, after a first-round win over Ironwood Ridge, finished its season 15-13.

Park, a 6-foot-5 senior center, had a couple key plays in the final period. With 18 seconds left and the game tied at 47, he drew a charge from Mountain Pointe guard Jalen Brown, who found space and drove to the basket just a few seconds after Mountain Pointe called time to set up for a final shot. Brown made the shot, but it was waived off as the official felt Park established position.

Red Mountain took possession and guard Kevin Torres dribbled through traffic in the lane drawing defenders. He shoveled the ball to Park, who was fouled with 5.5 seconds left. Park made the first free throw and missed the second.

Mountain Pointe grabbed the rebound. Pride coach Brian Fleming tried to signal for a timeout, but his plea for one wasn't seen. Austin Witherill ended up with the ball deep in the left corner and fired up a desperation shot from about 22 feet that sailed off target at the buzzer.

"We've had a lot of games go like this one," Fleming said. "We were down to Brophy by 19 and came back annd won. Trailed by 13 to them and came back to lose in overtime. There have been a lot of games we won or had a chance to win coming from behind....

"We wanted to get the final shot. "Jalen got free and had a good shot, but they called a charge. I didn't see anybody go down, but they made a call."

Not around to enjoy the victory first hand was Red Mountain head coach Greg Sessions. Sessions had to sit this one out since he was ejected in their section final loss last week to Corona del Sol. Longtime assistant Scott Newendyke became first chair for the night. He was only too happy to give the reins back to Sessions as he arrived at the gym at the completion of the game.

"I like being in the game as an assistant," Newendyke said. "We've had a lot of games like this. You never can get too comfortable. Justin took that charge and Kevin found a way to get through three guys and deliver the ball to the right guy.

"Give Mountain Pointe credit. What did we have them down, 39-28, in the third quarter? They kept after us and did a better job not letting us get shots we wanted to make a comeback."

Red Mountain, which usually has balanced scoring, did so again in this one. Park and 6-3 forward Juan Zuniga tallied 12 points apiece. Ryan Bunker added 10 points and Logan Larsen and Travis Meeker six points each.

Mountain Pointe had three players finish in double figures led by Khari Holloway with 19, Witherill with 11 and Tre Campbell (10). Holloway had a big second half, scoring 13 of his 19 points in leading the rally that fell just short. His only 3 of the game tied it at 47 with two mintues to play.

"We tried hard all night to keep in front of him and keep him from getting in the lane," Newendyke said of Holloway. "We hadn't seen him shoot a lot of threes. But he backed up a little and hit that one. He's that good of a player that you won't shut him down no matter what you do. We were glad he didn't have the ball for their last couple shots."