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Show Times Newspaper Wednesday, January 9, 2002 Page 7 Sports Editorial A Itadk ant MARTIN HARRIS 1 Times Sports Editor As it comes time for region play to get started, let us take a look back at what the preseason presea-son has taught us. Region Seven has turned upside down. Orem has the best record. Then Timpanogos, Mountain View and Lone Peak are all tied up at 5-6, followed by Pleasant Grove. Orem High's Mike Conner could just be Coach of the Year from Region Seven. Conner has got the Tigers at the top of the region without a returning starter. The Tigers only returned two players with any varsity experience, Jonny Nielsen and Andy Evans, and the two combined for a one point per game average. Alex Coombs and Nielsen are a great one-two punch in the, back court. Together they have helped the Tigers to four wins in their last five games. Andy Evans and Austin Larsen have contributed big at crucial times. Evans carries the team in the middle. He won the game against Payson. After Nielsen fouled out halfway through the fourth, Evans carried car-ried the Tiger offense resulting in 18 points. In the last two games Evans has really come alive scoring 18 against Taylorsville and 16 more against Timpview. Larsen had his shining moment against North Hollywood in the Las Vegas Tourney when he saved Orem from a loss, scoring 14 points. He was the only Tiger to score double figures in the contest. , The Tigers (6-4) most glaring glar-ing weakness is size but for now it looks like their hustle, quickness and energy will keep them in games. The offense struggled against Timpview in the third and fourth quarters. Their defense is pretty solid. They held the T-Birds to eight points in the third quarter. Timpanogos is playing well after having a rough start. In what should have been a rebuilding year after losing all their starters, has turned into a tournament bound team if the T-Wolves continue playing solid basketball. The T-Wolves main corp of guys includes only three seniors, five juniors and two sophomores. ' Wsufsotiy pOsi n 4 r J Mtn. View's Jeff Allen defeats Skyline's Zack Dutson 8-3 at the Bruin Classic (130 lb. weight class). Timpanogos plays a well-balanced well-balanced game and can attack an opponent in a variety of ways. They have solid play in the back court. Sophomore Mac Nelson is playing solid basketball basket-ball and is leading the team in scoring. Eddie Norton has arrived and complements Nelson well. Norton is averaging averag-ing 8.0 ppg against the last four T-Wolves' opponents. The T-Wolves can beat teams up front. Their size advantage became apparent in their recent game against Springville. Timpanogos's centers, cen-ters, Paul Kruger and Mike Weitzeil, combined for 34 points. The youth have caught on and Timpanogos is beating people. peo-ple. The T-Wolves have seven guys capable of scoring figures any given night. Pleasant Grove (4-7) has one of the most explosive players in the county in Steve Farnsworth. He is averaging nearly 20 ppg and Todd Thurgood is putting in just over 10 per game. Ryan Williams and Taylor Jensen contribute to the point total but after that there is a tzzz Jk i iff" W 3p Jacob Hunsaker (no. 32) battles Uttsolhi drop off in production. The Vikings have the offensive offen-sive weapons but the defense needs to find a way to play better. bet-ter. In four of their losses, the Vikings have allowed 75 or more points. Pleasant Grove is the only 4A team in the county not to hold at least one opponent oppo-nent under 50 points. The two surprising teams in Region Seven are Lone Peak and Mountain View. The Bruins and the Knights were expected to battle for the region crown, which could still happen, but both have suffered four game losing streaks. Inconsistency could be a problem for the Bruins. Tyler Cardon, Israel Ingle and Stef Zimmerman have obviously stepped into their roles as the scorers. But all three have had stretches' during the season where their scoring has disappeared disap-peared and no one else on the team has taken over. Zimmerman had his problems prob-lems during the Bingham, Timpview and Springville stretch were he averaged only six points per game. Cardon put down 23 in a loss to Long Beach, Calif, but then put 4 s i. few for two of career-high 11 points. se(Dini(d! The 10th annual Bruin Classic was held Saturday, January 5 at Mountain View High School. Eight teams from around the state participated. Spanish Fork's team took home the 1st place trophy with 210 points, Mountain View took the 2nd place trophy with 191.5 points. Skyline was 3rd with 108 points, Springville 4th with 99.5 points, Provo 7th with 51 points and Timpview 8th with 37 points. The other schools fa&mmmMnmm-m In........-l.ii-""r- v. IV) ' rW Mtn. View's Jeff Sorensen defeated Springvllle's Kyle Nay 7-5 in the finals at Bruin Classic Tourney (160 lb. weight class). At left is MV's wrestling team, who placed 2nd at the Bruin Classic behind Spanish Fork. Placed winners are (left to right) Rod Raeder, Garrett Story, Isa Takahashi, Curt Frost, Jeff Allen, Ben McAffee and Todd Robins. Not pictured are Ryan Borg, Bryan Park and Jeff Sorenson. Ccomiinitty HaixBps down 11 points total in the Layton and Bingham games. Things could be looking better bet-ter with a recent win against Spanish Fork. Ingle and Zimmerman were held to 10 points combined but several other players contributed offensively in the win including Jacob Hunsaker and Parker Edwards. If Bruin coach Jason Young can continue to have others step in and contribute offensively offen-sively then the Bruins will once again be the favorite in Region Seven. Lone Peak started 3-0 but since has fallen on hard times. The Knights like the Bruins cannot find consistency. Ryan Chase is good for 10-12 ppg and Brad Ruf'fner puts up good numbers but he was not in the lineup for team's recent Wyoming Tourney. The offense has lapses at times and cannot score. The entire offense fell apart in a 57-31 57-31 loss to Timpview. The Knights leading scorer was Nate Young with eight. The Knights did manage 70 points against Springville but tougher challenges are ahead. Overall, Region Seven will be very exciting. It is anybody's crown. If Orem and Timpanogos continue their current cur-rent trend then they will battle it out. Lone Peak and Mountain View could be getting get-ting things turned around. If so, they could once again be the favorites to win. Do not rule out Pleasant Grove making a run if they find some defense. The team has the offensive skills in place. A quick look at Region Six and things are as expected. Timpview and Provo sit atop the region with everyone else looking up. Provo (8-1) has big producers produc-ers among its top five but after that the pickings are slim it seems. Danny Robertson, Joe Wood, Jake Rust, Mick Hagen and Tika Wesley are threats to score double figures every game but after them the biggest scoring threat is Travis Eggleston, who has scored a total of 14 points this season. Timpview (9-1) has a fierce duo with Travis Clyde and Brian Swindlehurst. The two are the T-Bird's most crucial offensive players. Ryan participating were Canyon View, Hunter, and Woods Cross. MV Individual Results: 103 lbs.-Ryan Borg, 2nd 112 Ibs.-Todd Robbins, 2nd 119 lbs.-Isa Takahashi, 1st 125 lbs.-Curt Frost, 3rd 130 lbs.-Jeff Allen, 2nd 145 lbs.-Bryan Park, 2nd 152 lbs.-Ben McAffee, 1st 160 lbs.-Jeff Sorenson, 1st 171 lbs.-Rod Raeder, 1st 215 lbs.-Garrett Storey, 1st 1 , & Tyler Cardon (no. 10) goes In uncontested for the lay up against Spanish Fork. The Bruins won the game 56-51. Jackson is coming into his own and is becoming a leader in the middle. Sophomores Chris Miles and Matthew Pinegar both average about 6 ppg. Spanish Fork (5-4) has Josh Losee and Jed Liefson leading its team. However, the Dons need more from other players. Losee and Liefson account for more than half of the team's offense. Aaron Treanor is played well in several games and could be the third scorer that the Dons need. Payson (4-5) has two of the most reliable scorers in Michael Provstgaard and Walynn Burgess. The Lions fall to bad luck. Their five losses are by an average of five points. Against Orem High, the Lions were down only two points with under a minute to play but turned the ball over three times in that final minute. Then last Friday, the Lions could not make a last second shot and lost to the Bruins 50-49. If Payson can find a way to win the close ones then they M ; " I .pLf . Chase Frost raises his hand In victory after defeating his Spanish Fork opponent in overtime. Mtn. View JV placed 3rd at Bruin Classic Mountain View High School JV wrestling team earned a 3rd place finish at the Bruin Classic held over the weekend with a team score of 135 12. Spanish Fork took 1st with an overall score of 204 12 points. Provo inched ahead of Mountain View with a team score of 136. Other participating participat-ing schools include - I r ''i ! . i ' V- V 1 "v. ' 4 fc could be a sleeper to challenge for the region crown. American Fork is another team with two options on offense, Andrew Van Buren and Zach Adamson. Taylor Brown has had monster performances per-formances in his last two games and could be the difference differ-ence in the Cavemen's ability to challenge Timpview and Provo. Lastly, Springville. The Red Devils are off to a bumpy 2-5 start despite having the scorers scor-ers capable of winning. Against Timpanogos, the team played better with an up tempo pace but they do not play that way often. Athletes , like Nick Ozuna, Kelly Giles and Richard Bird seem to do better when they get out and run with opponents. Well, there is my take on the County. I have seen good basketball bas-ketball games so far and join with all other basketball fans hoping for more great games as the region schedule starts. I have every reason to believe that the state title will return to a Utah County school. Springville, Woods Cross, Hunter, Canyon View, Timpview, and Skyline. Tean members placing in the tournament include the following: Patrick Floria-lst, Kevin Bauer-2nd, Chase Frost-lst, Anthony Jenkins-4th, Jenkins-4th, Josh Sorenson-1st, Ben Holdaway-lst, and Matt Silito-lst. |