Basha continued its unbeaten ways Tuesday night and did so in what has been typical fashion thus far.

The Bears used their early-season experience in tight games to post a 69-63 victory over Mesa Mountain View in a Division I game at Basha.

"I told our guys going against a program like Mountain View and Coach (Gary) Ernst) it would take 32 minutes,," Basha coach Mike Grothaus said. "Twenty-eight minutes, 29 won't get it. We played hard the whole way. The thing I like about us is how gritty and competitive we are. We didn't get rattled or lose our composure down the stretch."

Basha, which is playing this season without standout Klay Stall (out for the year due to knee surgery), improved to 8-0. The Bears had four players score in double fiigures -- Antwan Ross-Jones (21), Devin Kirby (13), Terrel Brown (11) and Austin Picarello (11). Basha made 15 of 17 free throws -- 13-of 13 in the final quarter. Mountain View fell to 2-1

Basha took Grothaus' words to heart from the opening tip, breaking out to  a 19-4 lead after the first eight minutes. A combined three 3s in the quarter from Kirby and  Ross-Jones served to create a 8-0 run to begin the quarter and forced Ernst to resort to two timeouts to try to slow the Bears. Mountain View's 1-for-13 shooting effort from the field in the quarter didn't help matters.

But as Grothaus expected, Mountain View didn't fade away. The Toros pulled within four in the second period (23-19) as their offense revolved almost exclusively from senior guard Tommy Kuhse and senior forward Zane Zowaiszas. They combined for 16 of Mountain View's 19 points in the first half that ended with Basha up 27-19. Kuhse led Mountain View with 18 points, Zowaiszas added 13 and Jayton Brown 11 -- all in the second half.

Kuhse scored six points in the third period and got assistance from four teammates in the quarter as the Toros shaved the deficit to 44-41 heading to the final period. Basha managed a 50-45 lead with 5:09 left, but over the next 2 1/2 minutes committed four turnovers and scored just two points. Mountain View's 9-2 run in that interval landed it the lead, 54-52, on a 3-point shot by Matt Clark with 2:35 left.

But Basha turned the tables using an 8-0 burst (six free throws and a steal and layup by Terrell Brown) to go back in front, 60-54, with 1:26 to go. Basha was perfect from the line in the final  2:29 to take and maintain the lead to the finish.

"It's hard to win when you fall behind as much as we did early," Ernst said. "We did  a good job battling back, but didn't play well the last couple minutes. We had some missed opportunities, and against a good team you can't afford that."

Three of Basha's first seven wins were by four points or less and Grothaus felt those experiences were helpful in outlasting Mountain View.

"We've been in close games already a few times and so far we've responded well in those," Grothaus said.

Basha plays two home games to finish out this week Thursday vs. Tempe High and Friday vs. Skyline. Mountain View heads to Orem, Utah for four games Thursday through Saturday at the FreeTax Shootout at Orem, High. Mountain View's first game of the tournament is against Salem HIlls High (Utah).