HURRICANE – Sometimes shots just don’t fall. In that case, pound it inside.
Chandler Gines and Nate Gottfredson combined for 35 points, most of them in the paint, to lead Snow Canyon past Hurricane 55-34. The Warriors overcame a sluggish effort in the second quarter and locked down on the hometown team late in the game to seal the victory.
“Sometimes the kids don’t always believe what you tell them,” Snow Canyon coach James Brown said. “They’ve got to come out and do some dumb things and experience it on their own. We just really didn’t show up mentally.”
Snow Canyon started quickly, but floundered the lead it had built by trying to do too much. Gines said they needed to slow things down and simply run the offense.
“We started trying to push it too quick,” Gines said. “It was kind of rough. We got too rushed and were impatient. It caused a lot of turnovers, so it hurt us offensively and ruined our flow.”
Gines scored 16 points while Gottfredson led all scorers with 19 points and the Warriors threatened to blow the game wide open on multiple occasions, but turnovers kept the game close through two and a half quarters. Snow Canyon didn’t take its first double-digit lead until midway through the third quarter, when it subtlety cleaned things up and started to push the lead toward 20 points.
Gottfredson also had 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots for the Warriors.
Cody Lebaron poured in 10 points, including two triples, in the first half to keep Hurricane within reach. But he only scored two points in the second half and finished with 12. Jordan Ence fought to add seven points for the Tigers, but faced an uphill battle with the dominant Gottfredson roaming the paint.
“It’s my duty to get all that stuff (down low),” Gottfredson said. “I just try and do my job and when they come down I kick out.”
The Warriors returned two players from injuries and other health-related absences against the Tigers as Kallan Webster saw his first action since the third game of the season and Gabe Jensen saw his first significant minutes of the season. Webster drained two 3-pointers for six points and Jensen finished with just two points, but just having them on the court was a boost for Snow Canyon.
“It’s good to have Kallan back,” Brown said. “It’s good to see him shooting the ball well. It’s great to have Gabe back. There’s some kids coming back that we expected to have. It’s nice to have them back.”
The Warriors improve to 3-0 in the region and will welcome fellow unbeaten Cedar to the Jungle on Friday in a battle for the outright Region 9 lead. Hurricane falls to 0-4 in region play and will have another shot at their first region win on Friday against Canyon View.
Boxscore: schur1913
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