ST. GEORGE — The Coach Walker Memorial Classic concluded on Saturday with a quintuple header of Region 9 boys teams taking the court at Pine View High School and a sixth game hosted by Dixie High at Dixie Middle School. The local teams swept their way through the day, while Dixie fell in a close match to Lone Peak.

The Coach Walker Classic is in memory of longtime Pine View coach Darin Walker, who passed in 2014. Walker was known for his charitable character and his family continues that legacy by helping organize the invitational every year. Even with the complications of COVID-19 this year, the tournament was still held.

“He always helped out, I mean every region team,” Pine View boys basketball head coach Ryan Eves said. “If he found out a kid needed cleats, he bought them cleats. If a kid needed basketball shoes, he bought them shoes.

“We’ve had this tournament forever. When he passed away, we changed the name to Coach Walker Classic. His family, his wife and kids, donate time, donate food, donate their time to take tickets to keep cost down to make some money to help other schools.”

Those interested in donating to the fund can do so by following these steps

1. Go to secure3.myschoolfees.com
2. Create an account
3. Search for Pine View High School
4. Go to Public Items
5. Go to Sports-Winter
6. Go to Coach Walker Classic Donations
7. Choose the amount you would like to donate

Here are the scores from Region 9’s basketball games on Saturday.

Boys

Desert Hills 74, Spanish Fork 62
The Thunder started things off at 9 a.m. Despite the early tipoff, they continued to use their aggressive style to get chances from the free-throw line and separate themselves in their seventh win in seven tries this preseason.

Desert Hills went 19-for-25 on free throws, including 8-for-12 from Mason Landdeck and 4-for-4 for Peyton Holmes. Keegan Munson continued his control of the paint, at one point dunking the ball in the front court and jogging back for the block in the defensive end.

Landdeck landed two 2-pointers and three 3-pointers to lead the Thunder with 21 points, while Munson sank eight field goals, most coming down low, to eclipse 20. Holmes sank a trio of 3s as well to reach 19 points.

Desert Hills came out a step behind the Dons, giving up 19 points in the first quarter. Spanish Fork took a page out of the Thunder’s book, landing all six of their free throws in the first quarter to supplement six field goals. The Thunder recovered in the second quarter, holding the Dons to only eight points while racking up 20 to enter the half up 33-27.

A 25-point third quarter helped Desert Hills pull away as Landdeck tallied 10. They held off a 20-point rally in the fourth on the strength of a 7-for-8 performance from the free-throw line in the final frame.

The Thunder have one more pre-region game, taking on Springville on Dec. 30 before starting against Region 9 opponents on Jan. 6, traveling up to play Canyon View.

Snow Canyon 61, Manti 53

Lyman Simmons posted 31 points on 15 field goals and a free throw to lead Snow Canyon to its seventh win in eight preseason games. Simmons dominated the paint over a smaller Manti team, scoring easy layups in droves and distributing the ball as needed to find teammates with better shot opportunities.

“Lyman played mature,” Snow Canyon head coach Doug Meacham said. “Sometimes you have to be patient. He’s getting to better and better every game at finding open guys when he’s doubled. He’ll keep getting better at that, and that’ll just keep making our threes better. It’s fun to have a guy like that that’s starting to see the game.”

The Warriors entered the second quarter down by a point, but left it up by nine. Simmons accounted for 13 of the team’s 18 points in the quarter. Will Warner accounted for the other five, with a three on a screen by none other than Simmons.

Snow Canyon had to find new ways to score, as typical field general Lincoln Polatis played through shin splints. The injury kept him from scoring, after entering averaging 12 points a game. Isaac Lyon, one of the team’s primary shooters, also was held scoreless.

To make up the difference, Simmons upped his shooting game. Blake Munson hit 10 points. Brenton Childs scored only once on a wide-open 3-pointer in the third quarter that increased the team’s lead to 14, but Meacham made a point to highlight him.

“He’s a good teammate senior,” Meacham said. “Whether he’s starting or coming off the bench, he’s the same guy. Those guys, seniors who buy into the ‘team first,’ it’s easier said than done. He’s doing it. He came in, had a big offensive rebound and hit a big three.”

Meacham said the team still has some work to do on defense, but is ready for the break to rest mentally and physically before region play starts.

The Warriors finish the preseason schedule 7-1. Their first Region 9 game is on Jan. 6 at Cedar.

Crimson Cliffs 80, Green Canyon 62

The offensive barrage continues for Crimson Cliffs, which stayed undefeated.

Three different players scored at least 18, which doesn’t include sophomore Brock Felder, who scored 14. They shot 62% from the field as a whole and 63% on 19 3-point attempts. Hudson Hawes went 5-for-8 on threes alone.

Crimson came firing out of the gate, dropping 42 points in the first half. Head coach Kasey Winters also said the team played some of its best defense this season in the first two periods.

“We gave up 26 points, but we played really well defensively,” Winters said.

Seniors Cole Sampson and Trei Rockhill each had 18 points, one behind Hawes for the game lead.

Crimson Cliffs concludes its preseason schedule a perfect 8-0. Desert Hills, which played seven games, is the only other undefeated team remaining in Region 9. Crimson hosts Pine View on Jan. 6 to open its second region schedule in school history.

Pine View 45, Springville 42

The Panthers scraped out their first win of the season in a battle with another winless team that went down to the wire. Both teams wanted to get their first in the W column, and it showed. They played aggressive, sometimes too much so, but each showed resilience. They were loud at the key points of the game.

Pine View jumped out to an early lead with a dominant first quarter. They outscored Springville 14-7. At the half, however, they trailed by two points following a nearly mirrored second quarter.

The teams were nose-to-nose the rest of the way.

The score was 40-40 with four minutes left in the game. It held that way until 2:47, when Springville drove the paint to set up an easy layup and jump out to a two-point lead and stretching its scoring streak out to seven straight points. The hot stretch ended there, as Pine View’s Rushton Shaw hit a long three with 2:01 left in the game. Just over a minute later, after a key defensive stop, Bensen Shepherd found center Joshua Bice all alone in the post after a Springville defender slipped after contact, setting up the easy lay to give the Panthers a three-point lead.

Pine View head coach Ryan Eves then burned three timeouts consecutively, icing Springville and resting his defense for a big stop. With extra pressure, the Red Devils did not get a shot off in time, giving the Panthers their first win in preseason.

“I told the boys, ‘You got to celebrate the win,'” Pine View head coach Ryan Eves said. “I wanted it. They wanted it. Guys just giving everything they had, which is what we’re going to do this year.”

The Panthers came close a couple of times, but have been fighting through some injuries and getting football players acclimated after they went all the way to the state finals.

Pine View improves to 1-5. They start Region 9 play at Crimson Cliffs on Jan. 6.

Cedar 79, Payson 62

Dallin Grant announced his presence in his first action of the season, scoring 31 points. He reached at least five in every quarter. The Reds jumped out to a 45-29 lead at the half and kept building in the second before cycling in some subs.

“We got out early, it was nice to see the energy defensively,” Cedar head coach Mark Esplin said. “In the second half, we’ve got to overcome some shortcomings. In all of our games, we seem to give up points early in the third. Once we get that settled down, we seem to play pretty fairly well.”

Treyson Tebbs added 17 points for Cedar. Ty Harrison and Aaron Munson each landed a pair from the perimeter.

Cedar improves to 2-2 on the preseason. It was one of the few Region 9 teams with preseason games remaining, hosting the Coach Hodson Classic after the break.

Lone Peak 57, Dixie 51

At Dixie Middle School, the Flyers’ offense struggled against 6A Lone Peak. Isaac Finlinson tied with Lone Peak’s Cam Brimhall with 17 points to lead the game, and Ethan Bennett added 15 points.

The game was close the entire time, with the six-point deficit at the finish the largest the game saw at the end of a quarter. It was tied after the first, and separated by only two points at the half and the end of the third.

“Their shots fell, ours didn’t,” Dixie head coach Tyler Roberts said succinctly about the loss.

Dixie falls to 6-2 on the preseason. It travels to Hurricane on Jan. 6 to begin conference play.

Kearns 63, Canyon View 47

A slow first half was too much to overcome for the Falcons to overcome at home. Canyon View scored only 15 points by the half, a mark Kearns surpassed in both the first and second quarters. The Falcons outscored the Cougars, 32-30, in the second half, but the early deficit was too deep to overcome.

Canyon View landed only four field goals in the first half, two each by Tray Allred and Brendan Greenhalgh. Greenhalph’s 14 points led the Falcons. He also had two of the team’s three 3-pointers.

The Falcons fall to 1-3, but have four games remaining on their preseason calendar. They play again on Monday against Providence Hall.

Girls

South Sevier 46, Crimson Cliffs 34

At the Central Utah Preview at Sevier Valley Center, Crimson Cliffs struggled to only 10 points in the first half, trailing by 13 at the midway point. They played better in the second half, outscoring the Rams 24-23.

Ashtin Hansen scored 12 points to lead Crimson, edging out Riann Gines by one. Both had a 3-pointer. They could not keep up with South Sevier’s duo of Aspen Okerlund — who scored 16 points including a trio of threes — and Presley Chapell, the game-leader with 17 points.

Crimson drops to 2-3. It starts region play on Jan. 5, traveling to Pine View.

Pine View 47, Juan Diego 39

Pine View held Juan Diego to only 11 points in the first half to build out a 10-point lead on the road. Juan Diego hit only five field goals through the first 16 minutes.

Mady Jensen scored 18 points, including an 11-for-12 effort from the free-throw line. She landed all 10 of her frees starting in the second quarter. Averi Papa was second on the team in scoring with eight points.

The Panthers improve to 5-0 on the preseason. They play next on Tuesday, hosting Emery.

Updated Dec. 19, 10:30 p.m. Video added.

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