Effective stall helps Rattlers hold on

With seven minutes remaining and his team nursing an eight-point lead, Mojave boys basketball coach Colin Darfour called for the Rattlers to go into their stall offense.

Mojave’s next five possessions yielded a total of two points, yet Darfour’s strategy still worked out almost perfectly.

The host Rattlers kept the ball out of Sierra Vista’s hands for the majority of the fourth quarter and held on for a 58-51 victory Friday in a Division I-A Sunset League game.

“I feel like that’s just basketball strategy 101,” Darfour said. “In scenarios when we’re up a couple possessions in the fourth quarter, that’s always one of our options. It just seemed to work better this game.”

Jordan Glenn scored 13 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, and Darryl Adams added 16 points for Mojave (11-6, 6-1 Sunset League), which won its fifth straight game and topped the Mountain Lions for the third time this season.

The Rattlers, who entered the fourth quarter leading 50-42, committed turnovers on their first two possessions using the stall but not before milking a minute off the clock each time. After Adams made two free throws midway through the fourth to push Mojave’s lead to 52-42, the Rattlers committed two more turnovers but ate up almost 1½ minutes in the process.

“We don’t care about the score at that point when we’re trying to milk the clock,” Darfour said. “We just care about the time. We’re trying to dwindle that time down. … Over the course of the season, our guys have gotten better at learning how to stall and even how to hide our stall.”

Sierra Vista (10-9, 3-5) got as close as 52-47 on two free throws by Jasper Cook with 2:05 to play, but Glenn had a slam dunk after Mojave broke the Mountain Lions’ full-court press, and he added another slam after a steal with 1:35 left.

“Jordan’s contribution this game was phenomenal,” Darfour said. “When you have a guy his size, you expect him to make layups and rebound. He had a huge second half.”

Malik Abbott finished with 13 points, including 10 in the first half as Mojave led 29-24 at the break.

Maka Ellis paced the Mountain Lions with 22 points, and Cook finished with 12. Cook gave Sierra Vista its only lead at 34-33 early in the third quarter, but Mojave answered with an 11-2 run to regain control.

“This was a really big game for us,” Darfour said. “We actually were kind of worried about this game because they played well against us the previous two games. This keeps our momentum going.”

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.