It's been 10 years since Mountain Ridge has played in the state boys basketball tournament and the Mountain Lions want to soak it in.

For the second time in three days, No. 23 Mountain Ridge pulled off a fourth-quarter comeback, this time from double-digits down, to defeat host and No. 7 seed Hamilton, 42-41, in the round of 16 of the Division I tourney.

Senior guard Tanner Waldrip made the second of two free throws with 7.7 seconds left to give Mountain Ridge its only lead of the second half and its first since briefly leading early in the second period. Waldrip led all scorers with 16 points.

Mountain Ridge (17-10) moves advances to Tuesday's quarterfinals (Feb. 18) for a 6 p.m. contest against No. 2 Cesar Chavez at Wells Fargo Arena. Chavez defeated Marcos de Niza, 70-63,, on Saturday. Mountain Ridge won its first boys state tournament game in 10 years on Thursday when it defeated No.10  Mesa Mountain View. Hamilton finished up 21-8 after reaching the section final a week ago.

It did not look good early in the final period for Mountain Ridge when Hamilton's Zach Evans sank a 3 to extend the Huskies' lead to 37-26 with 7:25 to play. Graduallly, however, Mountain Ridge battled back and was within 41-36 with 2:01 to play after Hamilton made one of two free throws.

The next possession was the key as Mountain Ridge got two good attempts and were able to track down a second offensive rebound. Reserve guard Jay Hartgraves raced to the lef sideline opposite the top of the key and swung a quick pass in the left corner to David Taylor. Taylor drilled a 3 and that surged more life into the Mountain Lions, now behind by two with 1:43 left.

"We had missed a lot of dumps inside, but fortunately we hung around and got a run we'd be waiting for," Mountain Ridge coach Eli Lopez said. "We didn't shoot well. Hamilton plays tough defense and kept us out of rhythm. Our guys worked hard. It was nice to see at the end it does pay off."

Taylor, who finished with 10 points, tied the game at 41 with a driving layup with 46 seconds left. That followed the first of two turnovers in the final minute by Hamilton. The next came with 40 seconds left and allowed Mountain Ridge possession and eventually Waldrip getting to the line after drawing a foul from Hamilton's James Sosinski driving the lane.

Neither team had a time out left after Waldrip's go-ahead free throw, but Hamilton got the ball up court and in the hands of Michael Garcia. Garcia's 15-footer with two seconds left kicked off the heal and time expired before possession was regained. 

"We didn't make free throws and didn't take care of the ball late," Hamilton coach Kevin Hartwig said. "Free throws (misses) have hurt us all year. It came down to those things at the end."

Hamilton finished 6-of-14 from the free-throw line --  2-of-9 in the second half. Garcia led Hamilton with 12 points and 6-7 sophomore post Sosinksi, recovered sufficiently from an ankle sprain a week earlier, had 11 points. Sosinski scored nine points in the first half and his final basket early in the third. He got one shot the rest of the night.

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