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Orem coach Perry Wildeboer had a sense Tuesday’s area opener at Alta can be a difficult one for his undefeated squad.
Orem has overwhelmed quite a lot of opponents with size and athleticism, however Wildeboer knew Alta was one of many few groups that would really match his crew’s size and athleticism.
What Alta couldn’t match, nevertheless, was Orem’s psychological toughness down the stretch.
The Tigers held Alta scoreless the ultimate 2:57 of the sport, forcing two troublesome pictures within the ultimate 15 seconds as they held on for the tight 52-49 victory to enhance to 12-0 on the season.
“You’re not used to enjoying a crew with their size. We haven’t needed to play that,” mentioned Wildeboer. “That was an excellent expertise for us to cope with that trigger we haven’t had two bigs on the ground, I favored that we have been capable of overcome that.”
Alta held a slim lead for many of the recreation, however within the fourth quarter the lead slipped away thanks largely to Orem’s half-court trapping protection. With 6-foot-4 guard Carter Walker manning the highest of the lure, Orem pressured 5 fourth quarter turnovers as Alta completed with 14 for the sport. The guests, in the meantime, solely had 4 turnovers.
The final of these fourth quarter turnovers got here with lower than a minute remaining, which pressured Alta to foul. Nick Clark calmly sank each free throws with 21 seconds remaining to stretch the result in 52-49.
On the different finish, Clark performed nice protection to contest a Jett Lundberg layup with 16 seconds remaining. The Hawks fought for the rebound and retained possession through the bounce ball, however Clark and his teammates once more performed suffocating protection across the perimeter on Alta’s ultimate possession, which led to a low-percentage fadeaway 3-pointer as time expired.
Satirically sufficient, regardless of Alta being in place to pressure extra time, Wildeboer mentioned it was really probably the most assured he felt all recreation
“Within the timeout, I informed the crew, ‘Our protection is what acquired us right here and it’s going to win the sport proper now,’ and certain sufficient that was a pair huge stands,” mentioned Wildeboer. “They’ve purchased into enjoying collectively and defensively we take quite a lot of pleasure in contesting pictures. I felt extra assured within the recreation that final possession than I had all recreation.”
The boldness actually began with the half-court lure as he may sense Alta wasn’t certain learn how to attempt to assault it and get high quality pictures.
Alta solely scored eight factors within the fourth quarter, highlighted by a vicious dunk from 6-foot-10 Jaxon Heiden, who led all scorers with 24 factors. His dunk put the Hawks forward 47-46 with 3:49 remaining, however Ethan Stoddard answered proper again on the different finish along with his personal jumper for the 48-47 lead.
Stoddard and Clark each scored 13 factors for Orem.
Alta responded with factors of its personal on a Lundberg bucket for the 49-48 lead with 2:57, however it didn’t rating once more.
Over that ultimate stretch, Alta missed 4 pictures, turned it over as soon as and missed the entrance finish of a 1-and-1 state of affairs.
Alta had No. 1 Orem on the ropes many of the night time, however it hasn’t fairly discovered learn how to shut out video games but. It’s a sense Wildeboer mentioned his crew is aware of all too effectively, however one thing that’s paying dividends a yr later.
“We discovered rather a lot final yr. We have been younger in a extremely good league. The highest 5 in 5A apart from Olympus have been in our league, so each night time we have been dealing with a prime 5 crew and we weren’t fairly prepared,” he mentioned.
This yr Orem has that killer intuition each offensively and defensively, which will probably be powerful for anybody to cope with.