OCR Text |
Show itef Mm MM dtoooff iiffM kmlM Four years ago, Coach Ray Englestead, Panguitch, made a big gamble. Coming off of a Region Eight Championship and a third place finish at state, the previous year, he was faced with a squad of one senior, one junior, one sophomore and a bunch of arms and legs called freshmen. The gamble Coach Englestead Engle-stead made was pickingfour big gangling freshmen for his starting lineup, along with a senior by the name of Church. They didn't win many games. Each year he came up with another player or two to fill out the team, but he stuck with those fresh -men, for four years. Each year filling the holes with a new kid on the block. In 1977, they were good, the kids knewthey were good. Coach Englestead knewthey were good. But they under estimated the powerful Division Di-vision I. This year those freshmen are seniors. Coach Englestead Engle-stead has them in top shape physically and mentally. They've got desire, poise, confidence and determination. determina-tion. There was little question ques-tion as to who was the better bet-ter team at the Round Robin. Rob-in. They handled all opponents oppon-ents by 20 point margins. It would look as if they have the state tournament in hand next week. In just four more games Coach Engle-stead's Engle-stead's big gamble should pay off. In the second week of Round Robin Action, Panguitch Pan-guitch rolled over Kanab, 77-54. 77-54. Hal Hamblin's Cowboys grabbed a 17-16 first quarter quar-ter lead, before the Bobcats got rolling and went to the locker room at halftimewith a comfortable eleven point ' lead, 39-28. Kanab only made one more challenge, pulling within four points before Panguitch shut them off and coasted to the win. Dave Black poured in twenty -six points, mostly on 15 foot jumpers, and made several steals for lay-ups. Jeff Owens added 21 and Kev -in Fransen 16, all in the first half. Kim Glover had 21 points for the Cowboys and played an outstanding ball-game, ball-game, Ben Johnson turned in 14. It looked like the Division Divi-sion I champs, Milford, also were headed for the moon. Starting slowly, they led No. Sevier 12-6 at the quarter. They spread that to eleven In the second period. But with 2:00 left in the half, Coach Hillock pulled his whole team, and sent in five subs, to play keep away. They made no move to the basket, and turned over the ball once, resulting in a three point play. The score was 31-25. The Tigers returned after the half with a six point lead, but little Troy Hallows stole the ball three times for lay-ups, making a three point play on one, and the Wolves took a quick 32-31 lead. The lead teetered back and forth throughout the third period, with the Tigers gaving a 44-43 44-43 edge at half time. Coach Beck's crew outscoredMil-ford, outscoredMil-ford, 24-17, in the final period, per-iod, and the Division I champs had been upset, 67-61. 67-61. Mayer, Jones and Kirk led the Tiger scoring with 12-23-12 respectively. Hallows Hal-lows sparked the Wolves with 19 and Randy Burr had 15. In the warm -up Saturday, Gunnison jumped to an early 22-7 lead in the first quar- ln time all over again, except ex-cept that this time the prize is bigger. As the Milford and Panguitch Pan-guitch dynasties have reached reach-ed prominence, they have never met. Assuming they both get by the first day at state, they willmeet the second sec-ond day at 6:00 p.m. Milford has the talent, to play a sophisticated enough style game to put the Bobcats Bob-cats in the bag. But Coach Hillock and the Tigers will have to get it all together, and that is something they haven't quite been able to do during the season. ter. But Parowan fought back to be down only 10, 38-28, at the half. The Rams challenged chal-lenged several times in the third and fourth periods, but never got any closer than the final score of 66-62. They will enter the state tourney In fifth and sixth place. Piute quickly took command over Wayne, and though the Badgers Bad-gers gamely fought back for the consolidation championship, champion-ship, the Thunderbirds will represent Region Eight this year with their 58-53 win. In the highest scoring dual of the tournament Milford lead Kanab all the way until the final three minutes, when costly turnovers by Mil-ford's Mil-ford's young guards gave the Cowboys seven quick points and it wasKanab'sballgame, 91-85. Early foul trouble benched Milford's big men and forced Mayer and Kirk underneath, each with four fouls, costing the Tigers . their deadly outside shooting, shoot-ing, and ball handling. Mayer May-er led the balanced Tiger attack at-tack with 24 points, Kirk had 17, Jones 14, Myers 10, Whitney 10, and Williams 10. Kanab's Ben Johnson led the Cowboys with 21, Kim Glover had 15, and performed perform-ed his usual magic under the boards, Don Glover 16, Chris Glover 17, Coleman 10,- for those in double figures. fig-ures. It was the Bobcats turn to put on a show, and that they did before the hometown crowd, and the unusually small crowd for a Region Eight Championship game. But the Wolves weren't about to concede to Bobcat press clippings. It was a horse race right from the beginning. begin-ning. North Sevier jumped to a 8-4 lead and still led at the quarter, 18-16. The Bobcats were challenged all the way to the half, but Panguitch Pan-guitch went to the locker room with a 32-28 margin, and fans had little doubt the Wolves weren't going to upset anybody that night. Fransen, Jeff Ownesand Black dominated the boards, and cleared them with full court passes to Doug Owens that put it out of reach. The score at the end of the third period was 46-34 Bobcats and the final anti -climax score was Panguitch 66 -No. Sevier 50. Dave Black had 20 for the Bobcats followed by Jeff Owens 18, Kevin Fransen 12, and Doug Owens 10. For the Wolves Todd Kennedy had 16, Randy Burr 14, andTroy Hallows 12. KBRE's Stan Sorensen presented pre-sented the All -Region top ten trophies to Jeff Owens, Kevin Kev-in Fransen, and Dave Black, all Panguitch. It was the fourth time Owens had received re-ceived the honor in his career. GaryMayer and Ken Jones, Milford; Troy Hallows Hal-lows and Randy Burr, North Sevier; Kim Dalton, Piute; Brad Fife, Parowan and Kim Glover, Kanab. Panguitch received the Region Eight Championship trophy, and Division n Champion trophy. Milford got a trophy as Division I champs and Piute received the sportsmanship trophy. With two days practice, they will move to the Marriott Mar-riott Center, and they will only have a first day reprieve, re-prieve, as they meet the northern teams. Only Dug-way Dug-way and South Summit would seem to be contenders from Region 10 and 11. After that it's Round Rob- t f't - i I. if'S'SM v'f - ' 'ft ' ' J V r - il l h i I 1 v 7' . '; . ' I , ; . u- - . w I i i v . I . I . . . . ' 1 I . , .4 , 1 n ' r""l 1 ,. I ; 1 ' - .. K I - . J 1 : V. . ... ,; ; ... . . ! ! !S .)WY . -f - - ... : 1 ' -77 " ' v-" r- 'V i; " ' 'f (. . : |