HURRICANE – The Hurricane boys basketball team outplayed visiting Richfield in every phase of the game except for probably the most important one – shooting percentage.
The ice cold night left Hurricane 0-1 after a 45-24 loss at home to the Wildcats.
In the Tigers’ first game of the season, they shot a woeful 6 percent (1-16) from 3-point territory, 30 percent (9-30) inside the arc and 50 percent (3-6) from the charity stripe.
“The score says we played badly,” said Tiger Coach Todd Langston. “We out-rebounded them. We forced more turnovers. We just could not hit our shots. And it wasn’t just from the arc. We missed 10 shots in the paint. We won’t win many games shooting like that.”
The Wildcats jumped out early on Hurricane, grabbing a 10-point lead, 14-4, at the 3:09 mark of the first quarter behind some sharp shooting from Brandon Willardson and Brenan Thomas. The Tigers closed to within six to end the quarter behind buckets by Austen Beatty and Jayce Housley.
Richfield began the second quarter with a 13-2 run to put the game out of reach early. Housley would add three more points for the Tigers and Hurricane found itself on the short end of a 27-13 halftime score.
Coming out of intermission, the Tigers nearly matched Richfield’s output in the third quarter, scoring eight and holding the Wildcats to nine.
Needing some points quickly, the Tigers played high pressure 1-3-1 half-court trap defense in the fourth. While they were able to turnover the Wildcats, they only shot eight percent for the quarter, missing 11 of 12 shots.
“The shooting will come,” said Langston. “I know we are better shooters than that. Two things we need to work on is our defense and getting to the free throw line.”
For Richfield, Willardson led all scorers with 15. Thomas and Jaylon Steck added nine and eight points respectively. Housley led the Tigers with eight points. Kaden Langston added six.
Hurricane will have to solve the shooting dilemma quickly as the Tigers will travel to Richfield to face Stansbury this Friday as part of the 3A Preview tournament at the Sevier Valley Center.
Stats: RHS 45, HHS 24
Cedar 57, Delta 31
The Redmen rushed out to a 19-3 edge in the first quarter and cruised along from there for the easy win in the season-opener for the two teams.
Kordan Neilson and Dustin Staggs had 12 each as Cedar held the Rabbits to just nine field goals in the game. The Redmen led 48-22 after three quarters and cleared the bench.
Stats: CHS 57, DHS 31
Pine View 84, Enterprise 61 (Tuesday night)
The Panthers opened the season with the blowout win behind 24 points from Chaz Peterson.
“We’re going to really try and open things up this year,” Peterson said. “There will be lots of big scoring opportunities.”
Kody Wilstead, Collin Dowdell, Ryan Koller and Jed Newby all scored in double-figures and Wilstead also tallied 13 rebounds. Jack Bangerter had five assists for the Panthers, who open region play next Wednesday at home vs. Hurricane.
Stats: PVHS 84, EHS 61
Centennial (Nev.) 65, Desert Hills 55 (Tuesday night)
Quincy Mathews led his team with 12 points and six rebounds, but it wasn’t enough as the visitors from las Vegas got the win.
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