After three-plus quarters of nip-and-tuck basketball, someone had to flinch Friday night between Red Mountain and Desert Ridge.

The flinching was done by Desert Ridge with a turnover and missed shot in a 30-second span of the final 2 1/2 minutes that gave Red Mountain the space and chance for accuracy from the free-throw line to nab a 67-60 triumph in a Division I boys game at Desert Ridge.

Senior Travis Meeker, headed to Northern Arizona University this fall, had a larger than usual night scoring for Red Mountain. He scored 27 points and despite cooling off from the field in the final period, was deadly from the line going 12-for-12. Desert Ridge was led by junior guard Hunter Thomas with 14 points, but Thomas did more damage penetrating and dishing to the corners and wings to teammates for open threes they sank plenty -- eight. Thomas sank two threes and teammates Cameron Chatwin, Dean Spitzer, Shay Real and Christian Rojas also connected beyond the arc.

Red Mountain won for the seventh time in its last eight games and now sports a 17-7 record overall, 11-5 power-ranking games. Friday's game was a rematch from December that Red Mountain claimed handily, 57-36. Those wins are rare for Red Mountain coach Greg Sessions, who seldom if ever believes a rout is on the horizon for his team. Fourteen of Red Mountain's 24 games this season have been decided by seven poitns or less. The Mountain Lions are 10-4 in those contests.

"The last time we played (Desert Ridge) it was close the first half and they were making threes," Sesssions said. "They didn't make threes the second half and we pulled away. Tonight it was close in the first half with them making threes. This time they kept making threes in the second half. We couldn't get away. It came down to possessions and who got a stop. What was important  was when we got the stops."

Red Mountain led most of the game, but coach Greg Ream's Jaguars (7-15, 4-11) fought the good fight to the end. Trailing 41-34 with 3:25 left in the third period, Desert Ridge made a run and took the lead 48-47 on Christian Rojas' three with 5:32 to play. The lead see-sawed from that point to the 2:29 mark when Meeker sank the first of his six free throws in that final span. Those put Red Mountain ahead to stay, 57-56.

The next two possessions were Desert Ridge's downfall -- a missed 3 by Spitzer and a turnover on the possession after. Red Mountain countered both those missed chances with two free throws each by Derek Rojas (11 points) and Andy Sessions (10 points), bumping the Mountain Lions lead to 61-56 with 1:16 to go. Meeker made four more free throws and teammate Garrett Meyers (9 points) added two to cap a 12-2 finish.

Jake Airey joined Thomas in double figures for Desert Ridge with 10 points and helped the Jaguars stay close with a strong rebounding effort in the opening half. Desert Ridge got off 10 more shots in the opening half than Red Mountain and often won the scrambled for loose balls.