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Show PHS out-muscled at Region BEAVER The Piute Thunderbirds used strong performances from three inside players to steadily dismantle Parowan 66-47 in the first round of the Region 12 "Round Robin" Friday. Piute had been a team known for having plenty of talent, but also for their inability to play together all year. Though rated the top 1-A team in the state early this year (right after their 72-39 conquest of Parowan)," the T-Birds slipped to a 5-5 5-5 fourth place finish in their own division. For that reason, primarily, coach Ralph Riggs chose to play Piute instead of hot Panguitch in the first round. You really can't fault Riggs for his decision-Panguitch decision-Panguitch won its first two games of the tourney--but he was unexpectedly saddled with facing a revitalized team in Piute. Both teams looked to have the tournament jitters' as they sloppily slid (due to the newly-waxed newly-waxed floor) their way to a 9-4 first quarter, favor of Piute. Parowan started well on its way in that first quarter to a 29 percent shooting performance, poorest of all teams in the tournmament to date. Piute, not playing all that well themselves, jumped to a 6-0 lead before Parowan could get on the board well into that first period. From there, the T-Birds T-Birds managed to steadily build a lead through the next two quarters. The second, like the first, was slowly, somewhat sloppily played, but Piute still managed a 23-14 halftime lead. Both teams picked up the pace considerably into the third quarter, with Piute emerging with a 10-point cushion after it was over. Compared with the 13 points scored by the two teams in the first period and the 19 in the second quarter, the teams managed to light up the scoreboard for 39 points in the third period. The scoreboard continued con-tinued to rapidly climb in the last eight minutes, but thanks mostly to Piute, which poured in 23 points to Parowan's 14 to make the game a rout. The critical point of the game had to be the first two minutes of that final stanza, when the Thunderbirds put in the first eight points, and a manageable 10-point defecit suddenly was 18, and the game was effectively ef-fectively over. From there, Parowan was forced to counter Piute's spread offense with fouls, and the winners proceeded to can many of their 22 free throws. In looking at the game, one could safely say Parowan did not play well. Riggs agreed. "I wasn't really pleased with anyone's performance," per-formance," he said. "There were very few bright spots from our end of the floor." Still, ironically, the Rams scored more field goals than Piute, 23-22, and had many more field CD goal attempts than cud the Thunderbirds. It was what they did with those field goal attempts-hitting less than 1 in 3-that did PHS in. "Against a team like Piute," Riggs said, "you'd have to shoot well ' into the 40 percent range, maybe even 50 percent, to win." It was also at the line where Piute won their game, outscoring Parowan by an incredible 22-1. The T-Birds made the most of their foul line shots, hitting 76 percent, while the Rams could manage only an anemic 16 percent. Kennedy Sylvester, Shane Millett and Greg Bagley, Piute's big guns, all had big games, getting I 24, 18 and 17 points, respectively. Only two other Piute players, with two points apiece, scored. PHS was only able to advance two players into double figures. MikeJ Jones led the team with 20 points, while sophomore Doug Rogerson added 11. Center Brooke Bentley, who had been averaging 16 . points a game in the last half of the season, had his worst game of the year, and ended up without a point. Riggs' pre-game feelings that Piute might be ready to put it all together for the tournament tour-nament was right-the T-Birds T-Birds proceeded to down host team Beaver in, overtime the following night. f Wil mm v : ict " In V if U Parowan's Doug Hermansen is all alone as he drives in for a lay-up in the Ram's 66-47 first-round Region loss to Piute. |