It is not easy staying unbeaten in basketball. Playing close to 30 games or more in a season makes that extremely difficult.

But for now, Chaparral boys basketball coach Aaron Windler will take a 6-0 mark. His Firebirds notched that sixth win Tuesday night with a big fourth quarter to upend host Red Mountain, 71-64, in a 5A non-region game.

"That's three close games, the last three," Windler said after the win. "I'm proud of our effort so far. Just glad to be unbeaten to this point."

Balanced scoring again was the order of the day for Chaparral with Luke Roh leading the way with 21 points, Zeke Chapman adding 15, Justin Cole (13) and Alex  Pyper (12).

Chaparral managed a pair of two-point wins over Gilbert and South Mountain in its last two games. After starting fast Tuesday night and leading by six a couple times in the first half, the Firebirds went to intermission down a point.

By the end of the third period and start of the fourth it appeared Red Mountain might run and hide. A layup to open the fourth period put Red Mountain up 51-44, the Mountain Lions largest lead of the night.

A 9-0 run by Chaparral 2 1/2 minutes later put the Firebirds ahead to stay, 53-51. Ten fourth-quarter points from Roh and seven from Pyper keyed the final period.

" "We've played a 3-2 zone a lot the last two years, but we've been playing man," Windler said. "We went to a 3-2 later and were able to get them to miss some shots."

Red Mountain, which hit a number of perimeter shots in the first half, including 14 points from reserve guard Logan Larsen, had a tough time hitting those same shots in the second half. A3 by Ryan Bunker with 40 seconds left in the game and the outcome decided was all the Mountain Lions made from outside in the final period.

Larsen and Juan Zuniga led Red Mountain (6-4) with 14 points each. Joey Halvorsen and Jordan Pratt tallied 10 points each for the Mountain Lions.

Chaparral heads out of state this weekend to play in the King of the Bluegrass Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. A week after that the Firebirds compete in the Visitmesa.com Basketball Challenge at Mesa Mountain View High School. Red Mountain won't resume play until for nearly two weeks at that same Visitmesa.com Basketball Challenge Dec. 27-30.