The pressure was on Mountain Pointe's boys basketball team on Friday night. Perhaps a little self-imposed after a tough 66-64 loss tthe night before to rival Desert Vista.

Still, Mountain Pointe coach Aaron Windler felt beating Gilbert was a must to make any kind of postseason appearance a reality so the Pride applied pressure to Gilbert on the floor and it worked quite well. Mountain Pointe forced enough turnovers -- a goodly amount that led to easy baskets -- to snap Gilbert's 10-game winning streak and upend the Tigers in a 56-44 victory in a Divsion I game at Gilbert High.

"Maybe If I was a better coach I would have had us do more of this earlier in the year," Windler said of the Pride's full-court pressure tactics. "We came in here thinking it's a must win. I hope this gets us into the sectional or at least gets us a spot at state. I don't want to have to sit and wait a week for everything to shake out. We'll cross our fingers and see what happens."

The win was big for Mountain Pointe lifting it to 13-11 for the season and 10-8 in power-ranking games. The Pride entered Friday (the final day of the regular season) in the No. 18 spot in Division I power-rankings. They also were 9th in Section 3 of D-I, one spot out of qualifying for next week's sectionals that open Wednesday for boys at sites across the state.

The teams traded a few baskets and turnovers in the first quarter with Mountain Pointe leading, 14-9, after the first eight minutes. Gilbert's turnover problems began increasling in the second period when point guard Anthony Bryant was absent from the lineup. Bryant banged the back of his head in to a wall hustling for a loose ball with 46 seconds left in the first quarter. He was diagnosed with a concussion and did not return.

From there on Gilbert had regular difficulty getting the out of back court. Mountain Pointe ended up getting eight baskets -- most of them easy ones -- off of 23 Gilbert turnovers.

"I know not having (Bryant) in there hurt them," Windler said. "I hope he's alright. (Jay) said he hit his head pretty hard. We gave them couple looks on our pressure. When we thought they figured one out, we went to another. it defintiely was the difference in the game."

Gilbert (20-6, 15-3 prg), which entered the game No. 5 in D-I power-rankings, did rally to take a 20-16 lead briefly in the second period, riding an eight-point run by junior forward Spencer Nicolds. Nicolds sank  two threes and hovered over the hoop for a putback dunk to complete his outburst. The game was tied a final time at 24 late in the second period, but Mountain Pointe got two turnover buckets and a dunk to end the half on top 30-24. Mountain Pointe outscored Gilbert 11-3 in the third period and wasn't threatened in the fourth.

"We hadn't seen pressure like that all year," Gilbert coach Jay Caserio said. "Maybe a little from Mesa in the Feat the Hop Tournament. Without  Anthony we had to have guys switch roles they weren't used to. They took it to us."

Mountain Pointe spread the wealth scoring. Khari Holloway led with 16 points followed by Tre Campbell, Chris Davis and Emmanuelm Butler with nine points each. Jalen Brown added eight. Gilbert was led by sophomore post Truman Moore with 12 points. Leading scorer Conner Helvig finished with just five. Helvig sat out much of the first half with foul trouble and didn't score until the final minute of the third period.