Boys' state tourney Braves, Darts lose heartbreaker in 4-A as basketball seasons come to an end By TOM HARALDSEN Sports Editor SALT LAKE CITY While Layton and Clearfield played on into the semi-finals and finals of the state 4-A boys' basketball tournament, tourna-ment, the season ended for Bountiful Bounti-ful and Davis on Tuesday. Bountiful lost another heart-breaker heart-breaker to Cottonwood, 79-77, thus being eliminated in two games. The Braves finished the season 10-12 overall. Against Cottonwood, a team ranked first entering this tournament tourna-ment but a first round loser to Alta, Bountiful saw the lead seesaw back-and-forth many times. The Braves took a 10-5 lead early, as Mitch Thain and Cory Sovereen were hot early, but the Colts rebounded re-bounded behind junior Travis Warner War-ner and senior Brad Sorensen, taking tak-ing a 21-17 lead after one quarter when Warner drilled a three-pointer three-pointer at the buzzer. Cottonwood increased that lead to 35-27 in the second period, before be-fore a basket by Thain and a three-pointer three-pointer by Troy Fuller made it 35-32. 35-32. Sorensen responded with two free throws, and then baskets by Chuck Wagaman, Shane Hens-chen Hens-chen (a three-pointer) and Sorensen Soren-sen made it 44-32. Thain scored at the buzzer for Bountiful, which trailed 44-34 at the half. In the third quarter, the Braves got a big break when Sorensen picked up his fourth personal foul with 4:30 left. Cottonwood became a different team after that, missing badly from outside while the Braves went to work in the paint. After Ryan Jacobs canned a three-pointer from outside, Thain scored twice and Sovereen once to make it 46-43. Troy Kloke scored for the Colts twice, but then Thain hit inside, and Tony Smith ran off four straight points to pull Bountiful Bounti-ful to within one at 50-49. A free i throw by Thain with 2:07 left tied the game at 50-all, and then Thain scored again and Smith hit another three-point basket to make it 55-50. Cottonwood got a three-pointer from Chad Fletcher and another hoop from Kloke, while Smith hit a free throw for Bountiful to make it 56-55 Braves after three. But Sorensen was back in the game as the fourth quarter began, and he scored three times from the line in the opening minute, along with two free throws from Warner, to give the Colts a 60-56 lead. Jacobs hit a three-point shot and Thain scored to give Bountiful a 61-60 advantage, and when Brandon Bran-don O'Brien hit two free throws, the game was tied at 63-all with 5:53 left. Cottonwood appeared to put it away, however, when it took a 71-63 71-63 lead. Smith scored for Bountiful, Bounti-ful, Fletcher answered for the Colts, and then Smith hit a home run and Brad Hartvigsen a basket to make it 73-70. A free throw by Kloke made it 74-70 with 2:34 left, but Jacobs scored at the 2:10 mark. Sorensen gave the Colts a 74-72 lead with a minute left on a free throw, but Bountiful took the lead again as Thain scored, and Smith hit two free throws. Cottonwood trailed 76-75 with 40 seconds left. Warner was fouled and made both shots to make it 77-76, but Jacobs drew a foul with 25 seconds left, and he made a free throw to tie the game at 77. It was up to Cottonwood Cotton-wood now, and Wagaman, who had scored just one other basket in the game, was left unguarded as he drove the lane and scored with two seconds left. A final desperation shot from halfcourt rimmed out for the Braves. Thain finished his career with 25 points against Cottonwood, Smith added 19 and Jacobs had 15. Sovereen Sove-reen added nine for Bountiful. 1 " 1 1 Sorensen had 21 and Warner 22 for the Colts. Cottonwood's opponent Thursday Thurs-day was American Fork, which eliminated eli-minated Davis with an 81-63 victory vic-tory Tuesday afternoon. The Cavemen Cave-men took a 7-2 lead early in this game behind the play of Mike Dean and Scott Rasmussen, and they never trailed again. Leading 38-28 at halftime, A.F. saw a spirited Davis comeback in the third quarter, as Bryan Emery got hot, along with Brian Olsen. Emery's score at the 2:25 mark made it 48-41. After Dean tallied for the Cavemen, Mike Welling hit from inside, Emery from outside and Olsen drove inside to make it 50-47 with 1 :06 left. Four straight free throws by Dean made it 54-47, but Olsen scored at the buzzer to ' make it 54-49 after three. : Olsen scored the first basket of : the fourth quarter as well, pulling ; Davis to within 54-51, but A.F.'s Paul Hansen buried three three- point shots in the next 90 seconds, ; and with them, buried Davis. The Cavemen padded the margin of vie- ' tory down the stretch with free throws, ending Davis' season. The Darts final record was 14-8. Olsen and Welling concluded ' careers with 17 points apiece in this ' game, and Emery added 12. Dean : led A.F. with 28 points, Rasmus-sen Rasmus-sen added 21 and Hansen 19.