Discovery Canyon started the night with a boys basketball game. But the Thunder finished the evening with a chess match against Harrison.

The Thunder’s late third-quarter surge Thursday at home buoyed Discovery Canyon past Harrison 59-45 to extend its winning streak to three and close 2025 with a victory.

“We didn’t want to go into the break on a losing note, so we’re really happy to get this win,” Discovery Canyon coach Howard Tarpenning said. “This is a good win for us. We gave away a couple of games we thought we should have won. So this was a good way to end things before break.”

Discovery Canyon (5-3) closed the first quarter ahead 10-6 and extended that lead to 26-21 at halftime but watched as the Panthers (3-3) found their offense and slowed the pace.

Harrison’s 11-5 run through six minutes of the third and Jeilo Hamenyimana’s floater at 1:59 gave the Panthers a 32-31 advantage, their first since midway through the second. The Panthers played keep-away most of the third and pushed their offense near halfcourt.

Panther guards dared Thunder players to approach and hoped their speed could outmaneuver Discovery Canyon’s athletes.    

“We talked about being disciplined on defense with that slow down and having a help guy in there when they got their downhill run,” Tarpenning said. “It took a bit, but we got it sorted out.”

The Panthers’ plan worked for the majority of the period, but the Thunder recognized a flaw in the method.

“They were wasting their own time,” Discovery Canyon’s Matthew Bennett said. “They had one shooter who we had to stop, but we could just sit back in the paint and they couldn’t score off of that.”

The Thunder’s gambit paid off as the Panthers’ offense stalled. Discovery Canyon then used an 8-0 run ignited by Duane Donlin’s 3-pointer – the first of the game by either team – followed by Ethan Easton’s triple and score to give the Thunder a 39-31 lead.

“Once we got that lead, we went to the fourth and got in a (2-3) zone and made it tough on them,” Tarpenning said. “Those threes were huge and then we got a couple of stops and from there we were OK.”

The Thunder’s shift to zone defense shuttered the Panthers’ offense in the paint and forced them to move beyond the arc, where they’re just 14 of 95 (15%) this season. Hamenyimana hit Harrison’s lone 3-pointer of the game in the fourth and finished with 14 points, but the Panthers needed more.

Harrison began to foul Discovery Canyon players and hoped the Thunder, who went 3-for-9 shooting at the charity stripe in the opening frame, would repeat that performance. But the Thunder locked in at the line.

The Thunder closed the fourth 10 for 12 at the line and outscored the Panthers 16-13 in the final frame.

“It’s huge for us to hit free throws because we’re big and go to the hole a lot,” Tarpenning said. “We’re going to get to the line and we get there more than most teams because that’s our style. It’s huge for us to make free throws and if we miss them, that’s a wasted possession.”

Bennett, a six-foot-nine senior, finished with a team-high 12 and noted the importance of the Thunder’s victory and the three-game winning streak ahead of holiday break.

“We have momentum going our way now,” Bennett said. “We went into that zone and we started getting buckets. It’s important for us to be able to adapt on the fly like that. It’s important for us to come out swinging after break so we can keep the momentum in our favor.”