Cortez boys basketball coach Tarik James didn’t get off the ground much during his celebratory hop after his team earned its first signature victory of the season.

But his players’ sky-high, post-game emotions more than made up for James’ low vertical jump. It’s only one game, and Cortez as well as its opponent, Fountain Hills, still need to polish parts of their games before the postseason rolls around.

But James at least now knows that there’s no limit to what his team can achieve this year after Thursday’s 74-67 overtime home win.

“We are a small team, but we have a lot of heart and they showed me that today after missing all of those free throws," James aid. "But we still came out with a victory against a great team.”

A below average free throw performance in the second half and overtime kept Cortez from a double-digit victory.

Fountain Hills’ undoing was the several missed threes it attempted in the second half and overtime. Fountain Hills’ balanced scoring team came in as the favorite and looked the part from the start, when its 3-point attempts found the mark.

Fountain Hills spread the ball around until it found an open man on the outside, or a lane opened up, or until Austin Keating was open inside. Making the Cortez engine go this year is the play of guards Christian Hakilimali (21.5 ppg) and Trevan Newman (19.4 ppg), who kept their team in the game in the first half with outside shots from Newman and Hakilimali’s putbacks.

(No. 15 Christian Hakilimali and No. 24 Trevan Newman.)

But Cortez (11-2) needed a third player to step up. In stepped the Masked Man, Petrit Haliti, an Albania native.

Haliti broke his nose early in the season and was playing with a clear mask Thursday. But in his second game back since the injury, Haliti, a guard, scored 13 points in the third quarter to help Cortez open a 54-44 lead at the 3:14 mark of the third quarter.

(Petrit Haliti)

Fountain Hills rallied, however, and tied the game at 66 when Bryce Adrashie (6 for 8 from beyond the arc) made a three from the left corner in the fourth quarter.

With 18 seconds left in regulation, Fountain Hills had the ball last, but Cortez had two fouls to give and used them. Fountain Hills then missed a three pointer to send the game to overtime with the scored knotted at 66.

In the 4-minute overtime period, Fountain Hills (10-2) scored only one point, as Newman, Hakilimali and Haliti scored the final points for Cortez, including a dunk by Newman.

“The regular season is always a learning experience,” Fountain Hills coach Matthew Keating said. “Cortez is a great team.”