Ottawa boys basketball coach Mark Cooper summed up Tuesday’s contest against Mendota as a “make-or-miss game.”

Mendota’s Oliver Munoz scored the Trojans’ final six points, including the go-ahead basket with 1:30 remaining to capture fifth place, 46-45, in the Plano Christmas Classic.

One more basket in the final seconds from the Pirates (7-4), which had a Jack Carroll 3-pointer roll in and out of the hoop, along with a good look come up short from Owen Sanders inside the paint, and it’s a different outcome.

“We liked the shot,” Cooper said. “We make that one, it’s confetti and parties, and you miss it, and that’s what it was. Make or miss.”

On the flip side, the Trojans (11-4) missed on a pair of 3-point opportunities on their final possession to extend the lead to four.

On the Pirates’ final possession, they got the ball inside to Sanders and he kicked it out to Carroll as soon as he was double teamed. When Carroll’s shot rimmed out, Sanders grabbed a game-saving offensive rebound falling out of bounds along the baseline where he was able to spike the ball off a Trojans defender to maintain Pirates possession with five seconds remaining.

Out of the Pirates timeout, the Trojans planned on fouling Sanders before he got his final shot off. The Trojans weren’t able to do so, but it still worked out in their favor.

“I knew they would draw up a good play,” said Mendota coach Steve Wasmer. “We actually tried to foul at the end before the shot got up to give them a tougher inbound spot. We didn’t take the foul and when Sanders got that good of a look, I’m like ‘Oh no,’ and you think as the opposing coach, it’s going in. He makes that one seven out of 10 times, so I’m happy to be on this end of it.”

With the Trojans trailing 43-40 with 3:15 remaining, Munoz said instinct took over for him offensively, as his six points in the final three minutes flipped the game in favor of Mendota.

“I just think it was instinct at that point,” said Munoz, who finished with 17 points. “I just felt like, at that point, nobody else was scoring.”

The Pirates trailed the majority of the game, and by as much as seven, 39-32, following a Cole Tillman basket off an inbounds pass with a little more than five minutes to go. Tillman finished with a game-high 19 points for the Trojans.

Carroll hit consecutive shots from beyond the arc to cut Mendota’s lead to one, then Sanders tied the game at 40 following an Aden Tillman free throw for the Trojans. Rory Moore hit a 3 to give the Pirates a 43-40 lead. Wasmer credited Ottawa’s inside-out game with Sanders for opening up those good looks.

“They kept it at their pace, which we struggled with a bit,” Wasmer said of the Pirates tempo. “I was very happy we still found a way to win. It’s tough. It doesn’t look pretty, but you have to grind it out every possession and I thought, defensively, in the second half, we were really good, and that’s what I was most worried about when the season started.”

Cooper credited the effort from both teams and said he would like to see the Pirates “execute better in crunch time.”

“We still have a lot of growth left,” Cooper said. “We’re capable of playing at a higher level than we are right now. There are reasons we lost this game. I have to do a better job of having the defensive matchups we need. There’s certain points in the game we have to make sure we get better quality shots when the game hangs in the balance, but I don’t have any problem with effort, I thought both teams played really hard, and did a lot of good things. And they were one point better (Tuesday).”

Carroll and Sanders led the Pirates with 15 points apiece, while Moore turned in a 10-point effort. Carroll and Moore each made three 3-pointers.

Mendota was 3 of 19 from 3-point range, two from Tillman and one from Dane Doyle.

The Pirates and Trojans will meet again Tuesday.

“It feels really good to get this one,” Munoz said. “Especially because we play them in a week. I feel like it’s going to be another competitive game.”