HURRICANE — There’s nothing pretty about a low-scoring defensive war of a basketball game, even in victory. But being in first place, now that’s beautiful.
Snow Canyon won its third straight game by defeating Hurricane 50-38 Friday night in the Tiger’s Den and grabbed hold of first place in Region 9 in the process.
“It puts us in the driver’s seat and we can control our own destiny,” Snow Canyon head coach James Brown said. “We certainly need to finish next week off if we want to achieve our goal of being region champs, and so it’s a big one that way. I told my kids that tonight, that this is the biggest game of the season because it means a lot. It separates us a little bit and gives us an opportunity to stay home and still achieve our goals.”
The Warriors came out of the gates strong, stealing a commanding 14-4 lead in the game’s first six minutes behind the strength of post players Nate Gottfredson and Hayden Anderson. The Tigers were able to cut it to a six-point game at 22-16 at halftime by closing the first half on a 6-0 run. James Bennion hit a 3-pointer to help with the run.
Snow Canyon opened the second half with five quick points to make it 27-16 and held a double-digitr lead for most of the remainder of the game.
Brown attributed the low scoring contest to the lessened scoring opportunities as Hurricane played a patient offense. He said his team had way too many turnovers during the game.
Warriors center Gottfredson led his team with 13 points and 8 rebounds.
“It was scrappy, but that is expected,” Gottfredson said. “We just need to maintain our composure when they start getting tough on us. I think we did pretty good at that. We slacked up on our rebounding a bit in the first half, and I tried to pick that up in the second half. They were patient on offense and got some good looks.”
Snow Canyon made 13 of 33 field goals at only 39.4 percent and Hurricane had an even worse total of 15 for 51 shooting, only 29.4 percent.
“There is still room for improvement,” Warriors guard Chase Jenkins said. “We have a couple of big games coming up, but it was a good game overall. We played as a team, we finished as a team.”
The Warriors, 13-6 overall and 8-2 in region, have a huge battle Wednesday at Cedar, with a win giving them an excellent shot at winning the region outright. SC closes the regular season Friday at home vs. Desert Hills.
The Tigers, 5-16 and 1-10, will host Canyon View Feb. 14 in the two teams’ season finales. Cody LeBaron had 12 to lead HHS.
Stats: SC 50, HHS 38
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