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Show Overcome Milford, 69-60 Rams end year with win MILFORD " The Parowan Rams put together a solid, all-around all-around effort, and came out 69-60 winners against a winless, but determined Milford team Friday night. Coach Ralph Riggs got one, but nearly three 20-point 20-point plus performances from his team, and that proved to be more than the hometown Tigers could handle. The Rams, as in their earlier game against Milford in Parowan, jumped to big leads different times in the games, only to see the Tigers battle back. Their end-of-game charge in Parowan resulted in just a six-point loss, 54-48. Parowan took good advantage of the outsized home team and steadily built a tidy nest egg in the first half. After leading by six at the quarter, the Rams opened it up to 15 before Milford battled back to trail by just seven at halftime. It was shortly after the half that the Tigers gave PHS its only scare. After starting quickly, the Tigers outscored Parowan 10-2 and brought the game within just four points. About then PHS decided to put the game away, they once more held a major lead in the final quarter before finally settling on the nine-point win. Riggs was concerned going into the game that Milford might have been capable of pulling an upset. Not only was he upset over the quality of his team's play recently, but also their "mental attitudes." "We've had some personality conflicts on the team, but there was no sign of it in this game," commented Riggs. "I think we'll pull together going into the round robin. Our practices prac-tices have been excellent this week." Sophomore Doug Rogerson put together one of his best efforts of the year, nailing down 24 points and pulling down a mind-boggling 21 rebounds. Senior Mike Jones, playing his final regular-season game, wasn't far behind, as he added 17 points and 18 rebounds. Brooke Ben-tley Ben-tley scored 18 points from his high-post spot. Next on the menu for the Rams will be a first-round first-round Region 12 tournament tour-nament encounter with faltering, but still dangerous Piute. Piute nailed a 33-point loss early in the year on Parowan, but have fallen a long way from their No-1 No-1 Utah 1-A ranking. They lost to sixth place Wayne in their final league game, and then dropped a game, to Duchesne, a team the Rams edged in the season opener. In Piute, though, Riggs sees a team that has. the needed talent to win a state championship, but just haven't gotten their act together. "They can be highly explosive," Riggs said, "if they pull together. If they get serious, I'm worried." Riggs continued: "I think we can beat them. The first time we played them we were afraid of their power and size, but we'll be more aggresive this time around." Riggs wouldn't divulge specifics about his game plan, but look for the Rams to be a bit more patient on offense, and to give spectal defensive attention to Piute's 6-6 Millett. "If Piute starts running, run-ning, they can blow people out," said Riggs. "That's our primary challenge." Parowan enters the game totally healthy, except for some "pretty sore ankles that will need taping." The Parowan-Piute match will come at 11 a.m. in Beaver, followed by Escalante-Milford at 12:45 p.m., Kanab-Bryce Valley at 2:30 (Kanab had the option to take a first-round bye, but opted to play instead), Enterprise-Wayne at 6 and Panguitch-North Sevier at 7:45. Beaver, Gunnison and Valley all got first-round byes. With a first round win, Parowan will meet host school Beaver Saturday. A loss would put the Rams in the consolation bracket, and they would not play again until next weekend. |