The master outmatched the pupil again.

But the pupil is gaining.

East Mountain, led by former St. Michael's head coach Matt Pribble, used a 14-11 advantage in the fourth quarter to outlast Desert Academy and head coach Daniel Romero 49-42 in both teams' boys basketball season opener Tuesday.

Romero, who played for and coached under Pribble at St. Michael's, saw his teams lose by scores of 54-27 and 58-23 last year, but he felt the Wildcats matched up better with a year of seasoning.

"Last year, we re really young, we only had one senior and they had four or five," Romero said. "They are bigger (this year) at four positions, but we're pretty athletic ourselves. So it wasn't too bad."

The Wildcats got to within 35-32 at the end of the third quarter, but the Timberwolves scored two quick baskets to up the margin to seven points. Desert Academy could never get closer.

"He played us man-to-man the whole time and I was thinking about putting in our man (offense) out there," Romero said. "The thing is, he knows everything we'd run. So what I had out there was the best stuff to run."

Jeremy Upsal had 20 points and was the lone double-digit scorer for the Wildcats.

Monte del Sol 50, Bosque School JV 45

It might seem odd for a Class AA school to play a AA sub-varsity team, but Dragons head coach Jonathan Haack has a plan with a team of mostly underclassmen.

"We designed it this way," Haack said. "It gives us a chance to grow. This is exactly what you want for a young team."

The Dragons held a 31-28 lead before the junior Bobcats trimmed the margin to 41-40 heading into the fourth quarter. Monte del Sol (1-1) outscored their opponents 9-5 the rest of the way. Aaron Vogel led the Dragons with 25 points, and Ricky Fierro had six points to go with 15 rebounds.

Vince Woods led Bosque School with 15 points, and Justin Allison and Elliott McCreary each had 10.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Bosque School 37, Monte del Sol 19

The Lady Dragons are trying to build again.

They put together one solid quarter — scoring 11 points in the second — but progress was slow as the Lady Bobcats built a 25-13 halftime lead and kept adding to it in both team's season opener.

Still, first-year head coach Nicolas Trouvat felt it was a good start. He saw sliver of light in eighth grader Alicia Roybal, who led Monte del Sol with eight points. He added that freshman Alysia Lujan had a dozen blocks.

"I have a lot of confidence that we are going to be very different from what we have been," Trouvat said.