Red Mountain's basketball team showed marked improvement after a mid-December skid took the Mountain Lions to five games under .500 as the Visit Mesa Challenge commenced after Christmas.

Since then the Mountain Lions have been up to challenges every game and reached the .500 mark. The Mountain Lions even defeated 6A East Valley Region leader Mountain View a week ago to get back in the region chase.

There was a regression, however, on Tuesday night. It was inflicted by No. 14 Skyline, who dominated the contest start to finish in 63-31 romp at Red Mountain High.

Skyline (17-7 overall, 13-4 in power-ranking games and 6-3 in regon) continued what is its best season with its first-ever sweep of No. 23 Red Mountain (12-13, 7-9 prg, 5-4 region) since the teams began competing in the same region most of the last decade. Two weeks ago, Skyline needed a buzzer beater to defeat Red Mountain. Not Tuesday.

Skyline opened up an 18-6 lead after one quarter, extended it to 35-12 at intermission and christened a running clock with a 56-20 advantage through three periods. The Coyotes made 11 of 16 field goals in the first half, including five threes.

"The difference this time we shot a whole lot better and played better," Skyline coach James Capriotti said. "We hit shots from the outside. Didn't do that much the first time. I thought Dayton (Harris) controlled the pace and tempo for us. We're becoming a better team offensively with outside shooting and better scoring inside."

Junior Tanner Poeschl led Skyline, who starts no seniors, with 21 points doing the damage inside. Poeschl became eligible in mid-December after transferring from Mountain View. Freshman Dominic Capriotti followed with 16 points, including eight points in the first period and 4 of 6 shooting from three-point range.

Junior Tyree Tyler scored inside and outside adding 12 points. Sophomore Patrick Herrera, the hero of the first meeting with the buzzer beater, tallied seven. Harris, a junior, was content with four points and directing the offense.

Skyline can't win the region region since both its losses are to region leader Mountain View (6-2), a 58-46 winner over Westwood on Tuesday evening. Red Mountain, led by Jake Macdonald's seven points, is out of the region chase now, but may need wins in its final two games vs. Perry and Mesa High to claim a spot in the play-in round. Red Mountain must finish 24th or higher to accomplish that.