JAY — Both boys’ basketball teams and all coaches represented Saturday night at the Phoenix Dome would declare that their teams were in midseason form.

If we’re talking snow, ice, flu and midterm exam season, that is.

“We set basketball back 100 years tonight,” Mountain Valley coach Rick White said. “And I don’t think it was just us. I don’t imagine he (Spruce Mountain coach Chris Bessey) is too happy, either.”

Spruce Mountain walked away a 48-37 winner in an MVC Class B showdown. Those collective efforts barely eclipsed the number of points scored in the San Francisco-New Orleans NFL playoff game unfolding at the same hour.

For the record, White’s educated guess drew a smile from Bessey.

“I was just saying pretty much the same thing to our coaches,” he said.

The Phoenix (9-1) scored the first seven points, held the Falcons (5-4) off the scoreboard for almost seven minutes and never trailed.

Jake Bessey and Zach Bonnevie each scored 15 points to lead Spruce Mountain.

Bonnevie boosted the Phoenix with 10 in the first half. Bessey knocked down nine to stave off a Mountain Valley comeback in the fourth quarter.

James Barker and Nate Shink each scored eight points and hauled down double-digit rebounds — 11 for Barker, 10 by Shink — to dominate the paint for Spruce Mountain.

Shink threw down a thunderous dunk in the first quarter.

“Their starting five are as good as anybody we play,” White said. “I don’t know what the rebounding numbers were. I’m not sure I want to know.”

It was the second of three games this winter between the lone Class B teams in the league, the encore coming only eight days after the inaugural meeting.

“They put in a few different things,” Chris Bessey said. “We lost a practice Thursday, then we were prepared for Madison on Friday and had it postponed and ended up practicing instead. You can make all the excuses you want, but you still have to show up and play.”

Despite a 7-for-38 start from the floor — including 11 consecutive misses to open the game — the Falcons rallied from  a 29-18 deficit at the end of the third period to make a game of it.

Jacob Theriault hit four of his six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter en route to a game-high 20 points.

“All of a sudden we  just decided to leave him open,” Chris Bessey said. “I thought we did a pretty good job defensively in the first half, holding a team like that scoreless as long as we did.”

Theriault’s 3-pointer with 1:53 remaining sliced the Phoenix lead to 40-35, but the immediate aftermath killed that momentum.

As Spruce pushed the ball back up court, referee Ben Laflin called a technical foul on White.

“I asked for a timeout. I didn’t get one and I said, ‘Oh my Gosh.’ That’s all I said,” White explained.

Bonnevie made the second of the ensuing foul shots. Spruce kept possession and Bessey swished two more for an eight-point lead.

Ugly or not, the bottom line was palatable for the Phoenix in the fourth quarter. They were 5-for-7 from the field and made eight of their last 11 from the line to fend off the Falcons.

“It definitely wasn’t pretty,” Chris Bessey said. “If we made more of our shots early in the game, it could have been a lot different.”

Zak Radcliffe scored 11 points off the bench  for Mountain Valley, eight in the second half.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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