Temperatures outside may have been below freezing, but the boys’ basketball team (15-10, 6-2) stayed warm by burning up the hardwood and coming back from a halftime deficit to defeat district rivals Centennial (15-10, 3-5) 69-57 at The Nest Thursday. With this victory and a 53-45 road win over the Titans in December, the Redhawks have swept this year’s edition of the Rivalry on Rolater. 

Senior guard Toshiro Mahtani, the team’s top scorer, dropped 40 points to tie a school record set by former Redhawk and current Cal State Fullerton shooting guard Zion Richardson during an 80-58 senior night win over Heritage in 2019.

“My ability to make three pointers and making the right decisions offensively and defensively definitely helped,” Mahtani said. “I was not as strong or quick as others but due to my skill I was still able to still help the team. I wasn’t even aware that I had tied his record until afterwards because I was so focused on the game.”

From head coach Bruce Wright’s viewpoint, the game was a good victory, but the Redhawks can’t afford to rest on their laurels, especially with the sixth-in-state Coyotes  (22-2, 8-0) awaiting them in an away game Friday at 7:15 p.m.

“We started off a bit slow, which is somewhat expected due to how unusual this week has been, but we regrouped at half-time,” Wright said. “We needed to work a bit harder to pull away, and that’s exactly what happened in that third quarter. If we couple that with some high-pressure defense, there will be real opportunities to disrupt Heritage.”