Tuesday night's Highland-Basha boys basketball clash was yet another example of how tightly bunched and competitive the 6A playing field is when play-in games start Friday and the state tourney debuts Feb. 18.

No. 10 Basha put on a performance coach Mike Grothaus would like to bottle, turning in a complete outing in a 58-41 win over No. 2 Highland in the 6A regular season finale for the schools at Basha.

"We played hard, defended well and I'm really proud of our effort," Grothaus said. "This is a situation where anybody can beat anybody. We've had the flu bug affecting us some lately. Stil have guys getting over it. So it was nice to get the effort we got."

The final regular-season power rankings will be released Wednesday by noon with the top eight teams earning byes to state while teams 9-16 pair up for play-in games on Friday.

Basha (13-13 overall, 10-8 power-ranking games) gradually improved its lead through the first three quarters. The Bears held a 10-8 lead after one quarter and 25-15 edge at halftime. If Highland (17-8, 13-5 prg) had plans for a run in the third period it didn't materialize. Junior guard Trent McLaughlin, one of the Bears slowed by the flu recently, totaled eight points at halftime. He doubled that plus one in the third period drilling three, three-point shots.

Sophomore post Brady Reynolds added six points in the quarter (finishing with nine) and along with freshman Landon Schumaker controlled the boards for the Bears. Junior guard Thomas Hastings also stepped up with a 17-point effort, 10 in the first half. He added a three to go with the trio made by McLaughlin in the third period that saw Basha's lead balloon to 47-25 with a quarter to go.

"This was a great team win," Grothaus said. "We've had some younger guys get in in there and theyre gaining some confidence.  (Freshfman Ty) Sandoval drew another charge. He's broken our freshman record with more than 20 this year. Highland can be dangerous in several ways. We did a good job denying penetration, and they weren't able to hurt us with threes."

Highland made two threes in the first half and three in the second half. The last three came with Basha up 20 points and the game in hand.  The 41 points were the lowest total in a loss this season for the Hawks, who won a game with a season-low 37 in December.