For several minutes midway to late in the second half Saturday morning, it was like watching a re-enactment of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral -- Tempe High's Delano Jones vs. Desert Vista's Tarik Cool.

Their combined scoring outburst during that span ended close to a draw, but extra scoring punch afforded Desert Vista throughout was the difference in the Thunder posting their 11th straight victory, 90-78, over Tempe at the VisitMesa.com Basketball Challenge at Mountain View High School.

Desert Vista, which led by as many as 14 in the first half and early in the second half, lost that lead briefly with 7:57 left to play after Tempe's Joseph Leon's 3 gave Tempe (8-3) a 62-61 lead for a few seconds. Leon's basket broke a scoring run of 15 points delivered by Jones that put Tempe back in a game that could have ended up a runaway for Desert Vista.

Cool, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, put Desert Vista back in front for good, 63-62, with a layup, part of eight consecutive points he produced. Cool scored 13 points in an 18-8 run that gave the Thunder enough space with five minutes left to rebuild its lead (77-67) and turn back the more-than-game Buffaloes.

Jones scored a game-high 37 points (29 in the second half). The 5-11 senior guard made 13 of 26 shots overall and 7 of 13 from three-point range. Cool  was 9 of 12 for a team-high 24 points. Sixteen of those came in the second half.

"I think the difference was having a deep bench," Desert Vista coach Tony Darden said. "It allowed us to withstand their run. One of the fortunate things for us is the level of talent we have. It's helped in games like this one.

"This isn't the first time we've blown a big lead, and hopefully it will be the last. We need to learn to extend leads lke we had, not let them slip away."

All five Desert Vista starters scored in double figures in its first game of the tournament after winning the Trakanian Classic in Las Vegas, NV last week.  Following Cool were Caleb Simmons (21 points), Brandon Clarke (16), Quincy Taylor (15) and David Powell (10). Clarke added 10 rebounds and seven blocks for the day. Desert Vista was outrebounded, 45-34, but shooting 58 percent from the field offset that deficit. Tempe shot 38 percent from the floor.

Tempe, which knocked off Chaparral in its first VisitMesa.com game on Friday, got 18 points from Emanuel Gant. Gant  tallied 20 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the win over Chaparral.