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Show 1 Page B4 Thursday, February 5, 2004 Times Newspaper (Lady Tigers come up with complete game in key region match-up ; LANDON OLSON ; Times Sports Kditor ( Cofnlyst - 1. Substance that increases the rate of a reaction. 2. Person or thing that precipitates a change. ; The ( hford Essential ', Dictionary Starling a bit shaky, the Orem ;Lady Tigers were looking for sonic way to get going. They found it in Aubrey Stay and picked up their play to turn in ; a complete game, and with it earn a key Region VII victory over : Timpanogos. 54-.U, at home on Jan. 27. Not only did she chip in nine points for the Tigers, but Stay seemingly picked apart the defense, firing no-look passes to open teammates and faking out defenders to get the offense going. "This is one of Aubrey's best game that's she's played all year," said Orem coach Scott Houle said. "She's played great games, but this one she controlled the pace of the game, she made good passes, she played really good defense. She hit some big shots. I think all and all she was the catalyst to how we played today." And that was solid for the entire game. Unlike the past couple of games, there was no letdown, no anxiousness and no fourth quarter doubt. "They played four pretty good quarters," Houle said. "The first quarter was a little bit shaky, but we still played OK. But the fourth quarter what we were really happy with. They closed the game up, didn't did-n't leave any doubt." With a comfortable 37-21 lead entering the fourth, the Tigers slammed the door on any comeback hopes in the first four minutes. Scoring inside and out, Orem ripped off 12 straight points to go up 49-21 and cruised down the stretch. It wasn't quite like that to start, though. It took the Tigers over two minutes to score their first basket, largely due to turnovers. Neither team was able to control the ball in the opening minutes, swapping steals on each end of the court. "First quarter we had like 11 turnovers and most of them came off of our steals and then us trying to score right off them so we turned it over right back to them," Houle said. "I think they were just trying to score too fast and not take their time." I was kind of getting antsy. I mean, I sat out the whole first half with fouls. He said he thought in large part it was due to the nervousness and excitement surrounding a big game. Going in, both teams were tied at 2-1 in the region, with the winner getting sole possession of second place. "I think everyone was a little antsy to get started," said Orem forward for-ward Devrie Downey. Once the Tigers settled, the were able to take control. Nichole Dahl hit a baseline jumper to give Orem its first lead of the game at 4-3, and it'd never look back. Timpanogos was unable to score in the final five minutes of the quarter, and the drought extended more than two minutes into the second until Amber Nielsen finally scored on a layup. But by then, Orem was up 14-5. With a 22-12 margin in the final seconds of the quarter, Orem would start extending the lead again, and keep at it through the third. Lindsey Wilson got things going on an inside bucket fed by Stay, who faked one way then threaded the pass through the defense to the sophomore forward. In the third, Downey kept things going with a pair of jump shots, and the inside play of Marsha Heimuli further served to extended the lead. By the time Timpanogos was able to answer, this time on an inside shot by Candice Martin, it was 33-13. Downey finished with six points in game, all in the second half and all part of big Tiger runs. "I guess I was feeling it," she said. "I was kind of getting antsy. I mean, I sat Devrie Downey Tiger forward out the whole first half with fouls." Houle said, "We've been asking her to shoot all year long because she's a great shooter. Today, I don't know what she ate or whatever because she finally... she's got a good stroke, she's confident, but she's too unselfish at times, where today she finally played her game." Houle's comments bring to light a very unusual problem he has players too willing to pass the ball. "We have too many unselfish players and we have to go and tell everyone of them to shoot the ball. It's a blessing because we don't have ball hogs, but it also can hurt us at times, too." Fortunately for Houle and the Tigers, the open players were taking tak-ing the shots and knocking them down. Also coming up big for Orem was Heimuli, who had a game high 12 points to go along with a near triple-double as she also had eight Hm,mt,t ,i , ; i,Wn,Mmii ' J photo by Landon Olson 77m es Newspaper Orem's Kristine McConkie takes a shot In the mouth while trying to back down Timpanogos center Candice Martin (left) during the Jan. 27 game. rebounds and nine steals. Dahl was also in double figures with 10. The T-wolves were led by Nielsen, who finished with nine points, and Martin who had eight. Orem 54, Timpanogos 31 Timpanogos 3 9 9 10 31 Orem 11 14 12 17 54 Timpanogos Amber Nielsen 9, Candice Martin 8. Chetsey Brown 4, Mandy Vakxa 4, Kristen Louder 3, Jennifer Harris 3. Totals 11 7-9 31. Orem Marsha Heimuli 12, Nichole Dahl 10, Aubrey Stay 9, Kristine McConkie 8, Devrie Downey 6. Ashley Boulter 4, Jenny Fiso 2, Lindsey Wilson 2, Keni Pope 2. Totals 23 7-12 54. 3-poirrt shots Timpanogos 2 (Harris, Louder); Orem 1 (Stay). Tiger boys set tempo, stay patient, in game of contrasting offenses ii J 1 ' o ; ----- r photo by l andon OlsonTimes Newspaper Orem guard Colin Schmutz slides to a stop and looks to pass with Timpanogos guard Trent Bennion on his back. LANDON OLSON Times Sports Editor Get out and run or slow down and be patient? The answer to that question would ultimately decided the outcome. While Timpanogos likes to push the pace, Orem is content to run its patient offense, eating minutes off the clock looking for a good shot. This time it was the Tigers who'd get their way, running their motion offense to near perfection and getting the home victory vic-tory 55-42 over the T-wolves on Jan. 27. "We need to keep the tempo where we want to keep it," said Orem coach Mike Conner. Tm sure it affected them a little bit because they like to score a little higher than us, and it was kind of a tug-of-war for a little while and tempo kind of controlled it a little bit, especially early." But patience paid off this time, as the Tigers took an early lead and never trailed. With their shooters' strokes on from all over the court, Orem built up 12-point halftime lead. The most pleased I was, especially the first half, offensively we just took care of the basketball and made our wide open shots," Conner said. That's a big hole to dig out when you're up 12 at half They spent a lot of energy getting back in the game." The third quarter turned ugly for the Tigers, but even that wasn't too much of a hurdle to overcome. With a 29-17 margin coming out of the break, neither team could score for the first several minutes of the quarter. Finally, Bryan Gonzalez hit a free throw to extend the Tiger lead to 30-17. But then, Timpanogos found some offense, scoring seven straight points and pulling back within six. Orem finally final-ly scored a field goal inside on a drive by Mike Hales, and picked up another free throw to finish with four points in the quarter. Timpanogos had closed to within with-in seven, but wouldn't get any closer. The third quarter we got conservative conserva-tive and I don't know why. It wasn't the plan," Conner said. "We just got a little conservative and tentative, and I think Mike Hales picking up his third foul, Lyndon Plothow picking up his fourth foul, kind of took our aggressiveness away from us. I don't know why, that certainly wasn't my plan." Nonetheless, it worked for Orem. Three inside baskets to open the fourth quarter pushed the lead back to double figures, and from then on out, the Tigers would go to work from the free throw line. They hit 16 of 18 in the final five minutes, and despite T-wolf Mac Nelson doing all he could, scoring 11 points down the stretch, Timpanogos just couldn't close the gap. While Nelson finished with a game-, high 24 points, the Orem defense held the rest of the team in check. Shawn Yeats scored seven, while there were five players who each had two. The Tigers took the opposite approach. With the Timpanogos defense focusing on Orem's leading scorer, Craig Cusick, they moved the ball around and used a balanced attack. Alex Call had 15, Hales 14, Cusick 12 and Gonzalez eight "Defenses have been geared to stop Craig, so we had to get more people involved," Conner said. "I thought Mike Hales in the first half just kept knocking knock-ing down open jump shots. That was huge for us." It wasn't just Hales, though, as the box score indicates. Call came up especially espe-cially big in the fourth quarter, hitting six free throws and a pair of layups for 10 points. "I just let the game come to me, it was a fun game," Call said. They tried their hardest to take out Craig, and everyone else had open shots and they hit them. We hit our shots. Just part of the offense." While finishing with only four points, Conner said guard Colin Schmutz played one of his best games, taking care of the ball and dictating tempo against the Timpanogos press. "I think we may have had only one or two turnover against the press and that's your point guard taking care of the basketball," Conner said. Orem 55, Timpanogos 42 Timpanogos 7 10 9 16 42 Orem 11 18 4 22 55 Timpanogos Mac Nelson 24, Shawn Yeats 7, Ricky Norton 2, Wes Snell 2, Trent Bennion 2, Kevin Wilkey 2, Matt Lisonbee 2, Ken Donakey 1. Totals 17 6-8 42. Orem Alex Can 15, Mike Hates 14, Craig Cusick 12, Bryan Gonzalez 8, Colin Schmutz 4, Lyndon Plothow 2 Totals 18 16-22 55. 3-point shots Timpanogos 2 (Yeats 2); Orem 3 (Call, Cusick, Gonzalez). I & 2 Hi dk(H)m W I TH I I I I Kl K HI Hi H m rosy Wasiii h & Dm i k in i v II I Ml I j)l l () ) O i n km A 1 1 vn u s C'n ; 1 1 i i ki d "I k si-( ik i m k )N Onmii Bi w iy & b ki(i ksiioi' (' imitti K Lab fe I. ink k v M id Si kvio SummerjieLl Retbemati Community I )) Now Open Call 434-7561 o Jclyetlule a iiSd to our 'Retirement Community -z - -c'-i inwiu. l&&mis&mnr"i' SATISFACTION GUARANTEED "THE DEFINITION OF QUALITY & 5 , WilRKMAMCUIDn J i |