The Piute Excessive Faculty boys basketball workforce reveals off its first 1A state boys basketball trophy since 1996 after successful it Saturday evening on the Sevier Valley Middle in Richfield, Utah. Dave Anderson, For the Deseret Information
Heading into the boys 1A championship sport towards Panguitch, Piute knew it couldn’t let up for even a second.
So the Thunderbirds jumped forward early and by no means gave up the result in unseat the defending champion Panguitch 49-42 Saturday evening in Richfield.
“They’re good,” mentioned fourth-year Piute coach Eric Jessen of Panguitch. “They’re well-disciplined they usually don’t flip the ball over.”
Heading into Saturday’s sport, Piute had been defeated by its Area 20 rival twice in the course of the season and made two key modifications heading for the finale.
The primary was extra emphasis on the boards and protection, whereas the second was a change in mindset.
“We rebounded. That was the largest distinction within the first half,” Jessen mentioned, including how he respects the Panguitch program.
“I informed (Panguitch) coach (Curtis) Barney he’s been my Achilles heel my whole teaching profession,” Jessen mentioned. “I lastly obtained one.”
As for mindset, that was one thing the gamers took upon themselves to vary on the bus journey residence following their semifinal win over Manila.
“We had been speaking final evening and we mentioned we’re sick of everybody saying we are able to beat these guys,’’ mentioned Piute’s Raegen Gleave.
“As a substitute it wanted to be, ‘We're going to beat these guys,’ and that’s the mindset we got here in with at the moment.”
It appeared to work, as Piute’s Brooks Dalton put the primary factors on the scoreboard. The lead modified 4 occasions after that preliminary basket, however then Gavin Morgan hit his first two buckets for Piute.
Then Kyle Morgan dropped in his first of 4 3-pointers, adopted by a quick break to the basket by teammate Jaden Westwood.
Westwood then linked on a 3-pointer that put the Thunderbirds up 17-5 with 6:08 to go within the first half.
Panguitch’s Cody Hatch answered again with one in every of his personal, however Piute continued to carry a double-digit lead by way of the second interval, which ended with the rating 24-13.
The Thunderbirds maintained their edge by way of the third stanza, however Panguitch closed the hole to simply 4 factors with 1:04 left within the sport as Tucker Chappell scored seven of his 15 factors within the closing eight minutes.
He and Paxton Wolfely, who additionally had 15 factors, each made key photographs for Panguitch within the closing minutes.
In the meantime Kyle Morgan, who led all scoring gamers with 17 factors, linked on clutch free throws down the stretch.
He additionally was in a position to put in a layup as the ultimate buzzer sounded, cementing Piute’s win.
“We knew we had been the underdogs and had nothing to lose,” Gleave mentioned. “We simply needed to come out and play them exhausting.
“I simply wish to thank everybody, particularly the followers and the coaches.”
Gleave mentioned hoisting the state trophy over his head was an unreal expertise, and a welcome payoff for a season of exhausting work.
“It was a dream come true,” he mentioned. “We did what we wanted to do by sticking to the sport plan. If we expect we’re the very best, we’ll be the very best.”
The win was additionally Piute’s second state championship of the evening, as the women had gained their second consecutive title within the sport instantly previous the boys title match.
“It was simply good workforce chemistry,” Gavin Morgan mentioned. “It’s superior. It was a superb workforce effort. They killed us three different occasions this 12 months. Our complete technique was to field out and get rebounds, and it paid off.”
This marks Piute’s first boys state championship since 1996 and second total.
Deseret Information 1A boys all-tournament workforce
MVP —Brooks Dalton, Piute
Gavin Morgan, Piute
Kyle Morgan, Piute
Paxton Wolfley, Panguitch
Tucker Chappell, Panguitch