HOT SPRINGS -- Late in the third quarter, Mason Luna fought his way through traffic, drawing the contact and putting home the layup.
And as he celebrated underneath the basket, his brothers Auston and Bryson were even more excited.
But when you're triplets, that's just natural, right?
A year after capturing a Missouri Class 1 state basketball championship at Dora, the Luna brothers, along with their father, Coach Rick Luna, carried Viola to its first state title in nearly 20 years as the Longhorns rolled past Greers Ferry West Side 62-47 at Bank OZK Arena on Thursday night. Mason Luna, the game's MVP, combined with brother Bryson to score 37 points, but it was the Longhorns' defense that did the Eagles in for the fourth time in five matchups this season.
Jumping between a 1-2-2 and 1-3-1 press, Viola forced West Side into 23 turnovers and converted those mistakes into 27 points.
Photo Gallery
Class 1A Boys Basketball State Championship
Viola beats Greers Ferry West Side 62-47 in the Class 1A boys state championship game on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs.
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Although the Longhorns got a taste of success a year ago, making it to the postseason before being stunned in the first round of the state tournament, they all understood that it was going to take that much more to reach the pinnacle this year.
"It says a lot about both sets -- my [sons] and their guys -- they jelled from the get-go," Coach Luna said. "The first couple weekends I had the older guys up at my house, I had my guys at Viola, and they just jelled really well together. It was never about me. It was always about we.
"We talked about it from the beginning -- districts are districts and regionals are regionals, and that's great, but that's not what we were after."
From the outset, West Side (27-8) seemed like it had a plan to handle the Longhorns' pressure. The Eagles were efficient on offense, hitting their first four shots and jumping out to a 14-8 advantage at the end of the quarter.
But Viola (37-6) knew exactly how it wanted to play. The Longhorns were going to turn up the heat -- they'd arrived in Hot Springs Wednesday and spent two and a half hours at Hot Springs High running through their full-court traps.
They did it again for another hour and 15 minutes Thursday before they even took to the floor for their game.
"We were trying to turn them loose a little bit," Rick Luna said of his defense. "My guys were looking for that diagonal pass but they were slipping the guy up and there was no diagonal pass ... so we started letting them read it a little bit more and I think that helped."
What was just 28-25 Viola advantage at the break quickly stretched out. The Longhorns began the half on a 13-2 run in four minutes, blowing the game wide open.
West Side, with just two players scoring more than six points, struggled to find offense from that point, and the Eagles never got any closer than 12 points over the final quarter and a half.
"We changed some things [from earlier in the season] and we felt like we had a good plan," Eagles Coach Keith Brown said. "They're just a very good team. They're a very hard team to take care of the ball against and that got us."
The win capped a season for Viola in which it tested itself time and time again versus higher-classification opposition. Although the Longhorns lost narrowly on the road against a pair of 6A foes in Bentonville and Jacksonville as well as 5A Greenwood, they gave themselves an opportunity to grow and steel themselves for a conference that ultimately dominated the 1A tournament.
Yet when Viola had to prove itself against its peers, the Longhorns did just that, finishing the season with nine consecutive wins to capture their district, regional and state tournament titles.
And though the Luna brothers took center stage in Hot Springs Friday, they knew it took far more than just a three-man band to make that all happen.
"I think [all the guys] are my brothers," Mason Luna said. "One through five, it doesn't matter who makes a shot, I'm happy for them all."
At a glance
CLASS 1A BOYS
STATE TOURNAMENT SCORES
FINAL
Viola 62, Greers Ferry West Side 47
SEMIFINALS
Greers Ferry WS 66, Izard County 62
Viola 65, Nevada 58
QUARTERFINALS
Izard County 69, Mount Vernon-Enola 38
Greers Ferry WS 51, The New School 34
Nevada 75, Ozark Mountain 57
Viola 58, County Line 27
FIRST ROUND
Mount Vernon-Enola 82, Lead Hill 68
The New School 58, Brinkley 51
Nevada 60, Ridgefield Christian 51
Viola 65, Strong 37
Izard County 83, Kirby 58
Greers Ferry WS 78, Bradley 68
Ozark Mountain 61, Clarendon 59
County Line 50, Wonderview 44
MVP
MASON LUNA
VIOLA
In his only Arkansas state championship game, Mason Luna scored 21 points on 6-of-14 shooting with 3 three-pointers and a 6-of- 7 performance at the free-throw line. Luna also added three assists and a pair of steals in 29 minutes of action.
AND ONES
After starting the game 1 of 5 from beyond the arc, Viola made 6 of its last 11 3-pointers. … Greers Ferry West Side was playing in its first state championship game since the Eagles last won a title in 1995 as a 2A program. Before that, West Side had won just one other title, a 1A crown in 1983. … The Longhorns piled up a whopping 27 points off 23 Eagles turnovers. … Two players, Malachi Miller and Travis Gentry combined for 33 of West Side’s 47 points and took 27 of their 44 shots.
