Agua Fria can’t continue to hide in Avondale with a 19-2 record and a 14-game winning streak.

As Division II favorite Shadow Mountain was dismantling second ranked Paradise Valley Friday night in the marquee game in the Valley, Agua Fria was quietly holding off La Joya, which erased a 16-point deficit and played keep away for three minutes in the fourth period. But Agua Fria persevered, defeating its D-II Section V foe 66-64.

Shadow Mountain is the clear-cut favorite in D-II, but there’s a well-balanced team in Avondale that’s on everybody’s radar now.

“Don’t tell anybody about us,” first-year Agua Fria coach Randy Lavender said.

Too late.

Lavender’s team can push the ball but stuck to its half-court sets against La Joya for most of the night.

Senior guard Jordan McCants (24 points) runs the show for Agua Fria, but the team has three other players averaging double figures in points. Agua Fria failed to put away La Joya, though, which stayed in the game by converting its threes as Agua Fria started missing in the third quarter.

The game was tied at 56 at the start of the fourth quarter, when the action literally came to a halt, but the stall tactic riled up what was a somewhat subdued large crowd.

With Agua Fria having a good shooting night, La Joya coach Roger Lefebvre ordered his boys to hold the ball in a corner for three minutes. That didn’t sit well with Agua Fria’s fans, who voiced their displeasure but also started cheering for their team as the players stood around.

Some of Agua Fria’s players wanted to put pressure on the ball handler, but Lavender told his team to stay back for good reason.

One of Agua Fria’s stars, Bryce Fowler, had four fouls. The long, odd sequence ended with a thud, with an Agua Fria player being fouled away from the basket.

The game highlight video above picks up the sequence with 6:33 left in the game. More than a minute of no action had already passed.

At about the 6:33 mark is when the fans also started getting restless.