Mesa High played the role of gracious host to Mountain View and legendary coach Gary Ernst in a pre-game ceremony on Tuesday night. Former Mesa High coaches who dueled with Ernst - Paul Newendyke, Steve Hogen, Mike Schmidt, Shawn Lynch and Shane Burcar - were on hand to honor Ernst.

For three quarters of the game, hospitality continued with Toros having their way and leading by 13 with seven minutes to play. That's when Mesa turned rude.

#8 Mesa outscored #16 Mountain View, 26-10, over the final seven minutes allowing the Jackrabbits to edge the Toros, 66-63, at Jackrabbit Gym.

Win or lose Tuesday it wouldn't have been Ernst's last game as Toros coach. Mountain View will compete in a play-in game on Friday. The play-in game matchups will be determined Wednesday morning (teams 9-24) as will the top eight seeds. The top eight have qualifield for state and await play-in game outcomes to find out their first opponent. The first round of the state tournament begins on Feb. 17.

Ernst, who has coached at Mountain View for 38 years and amassed 943 wins in his career, was told last week by Mountain View principal Mike Oliver he was done after this season. That decision has brought outrage from the state's basketball community.

Mesa, which never led in the game until the final period, took a 59-58 lead with 3:11 left on a layup by Conway Cummard. Mountain View tied it at 59 with a free throw from Brigg Wolfe. The teams were tied one more time at 61 with 1:02 to go.

Mesa took the lead for good, 63-61, on driving layup by Talbot Cummard with 25 seconds left. Mountain View's third turnover in the final three minutes led to two free throws by Parker Escalante with 7.7 seconds left and a 65-61 Mesa advantage. Time ran out for a Toros' victory after that.

Talbot Cummard led Mesa and all scorers with 32 points and Escalante added 14. Wolfe paced Mountain View with 27 points and teammate Conner Cook tallied 13.