ONLINE UPDATE: DV volleyball 14th out of 48 at LV tourney

Las Vegas can bring out some pretty offensive things in people.

Yet the Desert Vista boys basketball team got defensive on a two-day trip to the City of Lights, finishing 14th out of 48 teams in a tournament that included teams from California, Nevada and Utah.

"We realized that we're a lot better defensively than we thought we were," DV head coach Ryan Tolman said from the Las Vegas airport Tuesday night.

Tolman added that the Thunder had been struggling with their defensive play in the early-goings of the season, when they went 3-1 but were swept by Gilbert.

"I was a little nervous coming in (to the tournament) that we weren't really ever going to pick up on that," Tolman said. "Something just clicked and we started getting our hands on a lot of balls and started making some plays."

DV led Centennial, a school from Las Vegas, 24-22 in first game of the championship match of the Bronze Division, but the Bulldogs rallied back to win the game, then used the momentum to also take the second in the best-of-three match.

"We were bummed," Tolman said. "We just couldn't get out of our rotation and things kind of fell apart on us. We're a little disappointed and just kind of ran out of gas at the end.

"Of all the Vegas teams we saw, they were probably the best."

The Thunder host Tempe March 20, then play at Tempe McClintock March 24.

Between then, DV will look to build on its defensive momentum in practice, Tolman said.

"It's pretty easy to forget what you did well in an experience like
(the tournament)," Tolman said.

"We're going to hit it hard in practice," he added. "We've only had one practice with our whole team because of spring break and basketball and sicknesses and things like that, so we're pretty excited to finally have everybody in practice.

"I think all of that will carry over and we'll really have some good things to build on."