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Show OREM TIMES Thursday, February 15, 2007 Page 10 SPORTSE&EC Timpanogos girls look to make history Russ Lyman This week, the Timpanogos girls basketball team will be pursuing history as it seeks to win its first -ever playoff garni; liist year the T'Wolves were upset in the first round after a successful 174 season. "We talked all year alxmt making history," said Timpanogos roach l.i Oarger. "It's still a young s hool, but it hasn't ne essarily Ixrn a girl's basketball school, so we've talked about making little bits of history along the way " Timpanogos will have the chant e to make history on when it faces Kearns in the f)A slate playoffs at UVSC. "Kearns is a very athletic, ath-letic, very physical team," said Timpanogos coach Liz l,uger. "They'll look to run a lot, so we have to make sure we're disciplined and play our game." Although the primary goal is for the T'Wolves to win the first game of the tournament, they don't intend to stop at that. "(hir goal is to win that first playoff game," I larger said. "Hopefully when we get that game we'll move on from there." Should Timpanogos get past the Cougars, things will get significantly tougher as a potential quarterfinal matchup with fSA's No 1-ranked team Skyline awaits. Friday, Feb. 16 BOYS BASKETBALL REGION 4 I Timpanogos at Spanish Fork (7 p.m.): As it has been the case over the last half Orem boys need wins to stay in chase for Region 7 title The hem girls team already al-ready has its Region 7 basketball basket-ball title in hand, and the boys have a chance to join them on top with two big games this week. The Tigers travel to Sprmgville on Friday (7 p.m.) and will need a win to keep pace with lYovo and Payson. The Red Devils are only 3-5 in region, but the previous game between the teams went down to the wire with Orem escaping escap-ing with a ()7-()5 win at home. lYeston Faton provides most of the scoring punch for Springville, so if Daniel Hock-ersmith Hock-ersmith can slow him down, the Tigers should roll. Wednesday, Feb. 21 BOYS BASKETBALL 3031 exchange Steel Tube 8z Pipe Early Bird Big $avlngsl Square & Rectangle rXL Steel Pipe TfeWna no 78" - 8 58" 12" X 12" -12" X lypA.XManYTlilcknesaw Huge Selection! METyVLJTiartf Save Now 768-3332 stoigHouo M F8 -s SAT 8 -NooN 181 S. 1 2QO E. Lehl, UT m m M M w Ul'V 'We have, an Extensive Credit Program. We can help with a New or Used car and Reestablish your credit. No Hassle 24 hr. Credit Line. (801)492-1870 Or For One-on One Help Call Jake at 492-0100 DOUG A ImI 523 W. Main, American of the season, Timpanogos' boys basketball team needs to continue to win if it hopes to make the playoffs. The T'Wolves got a huge win over American Fork, but are still a game behind the Cavemen for the final playoff spot. After Timpanogos' heartbreaking loss to Pleasant Grove it will be important to watch how the team relxninds. 'The schedule Ls slightly in Timpanogos' favor because it still has a game left against Mountain View to end the regular season. American Fork has a lough road ahead with its last three games against the region's top three teams; Spanish Fork, Ileasant ( irove, and lne Peak. Things won't be much easier for the T'Wolves who have a tough road trip to Spanish Fork this weekend. The Dons used hot shooting to take an 1 1-point win earlier this season. Tuesday, Feb. 20 BOYS BASKETBALL REGION 4 I Mountain View at Timpanogos (7 p.m.): Timpanogos' season comes to a close against Mountain Moun-tain View on Tuesday. The T'Wolves will have to win the game against the Bruins to have any shot at the playoffs. In the earlier matchup, Ryan Clarke made a Iayup with .5 seconds remaining to seal the Timpanogos win in one of the best games of the year. Despite its dismal record, Mountain View is still capable of pulling off the upset. The Bruins will need big nights from Holden Jasper and Taylor Tay-lor Russell to have a chance. REGION 7 I Orem at Payson (7 p.m.): The biggest game of the year for the Tigers will be Wednesday's showdown with Payson. If Orem beats Springville, Spring-ville, the Payson game will be for at least a share of second place in region, and there is a possibility that the game will decide the region champion should Provo falter down the stretch. The Lions won the previous previ-ous matchup by 16 points at Orem. In that game, Payson was clicking from downtown. If the Tigers can contain the Lions on the perimeter it should be a competitive game. Orem will need a strong performance per-formance out of Mike Hall, who may be the best post player participating in the game. 877-844-1031 Gets The all For Fi f..ft 11 I-1 I StnekyPnrjt Family Owned A Operated Fork, Utah Exit 281 801-492-1110 T'Wolves drop close one to Knights Jared Lloyd NOHIH COUNTY Time for another edition of "You Make the Call," the opportunity op-portunity for individuals to examine a difficult refereeing decision and decide what call would be correct. This scenario, which played out Tuesday night at Timpanogos where the Lone Peak girls basketball team ended end-ed up knocking off the Timber-wolves, Timber-wolves, 60-56, went as follows: The Knights led by two and had the ball with under 30 seconds to go in the game. They effectively eluded every Timpanogos attempt to foul as they moved the ball down the floor. The visitors took the ball deep into the corner, then back out toward midcourt. As Lone Peak attempted a pass near the midcourt stripe, the ball glanced off the referee who was doing his best to get out of the way and bounced into backcourt. A Knight player touched the ball and was immediately immedi-ately fouled by the desperate T'Wolves. The question is, should the call have been a backcourt violation vio-lation or a foul? The official on hand chose the later course and Lone Peak sealed the game from the line, but the Timpanogos fans vociferously vo-ciferously argued that its team should've gotten the ball on t he turnover. While the final minute turned out to be exciting, the game meant little in terms of region standings or state seeding. That didn't mean the teams didn't want to win the game, though. "It's a pride issue for us," said Knight senior Caitlyn Sears. "We're good friends with Timpanogos players and their coach. They're a phenomenal phenom-enal team and so we wanted to go out and play our best which we definitely did not do. We played lazy as heck." The Knights started the game hot, knocking down shots from all over the court. On the few times Lone Peak did miss, it seemed to find a way to get the offensive rebound re-bound and put it back in. That led to an early 9-2 Lone Peak advantage right out of the gate, one the Timberwolves struggled to overcome. Multiple times Timpanogos got the lead down to five and once to four, but every time the visitors bounced back with two straight scores to make the margin more comfortable. That changed late in the fourth quarter when the home team was able to make a sustained sus-tained charge to tie the game at 54 and then take a two-point lead on a layup by senior guard Jen Nielsen with 1:19 to go in the game. But it wouldn't last. The Knights tied things up 20 seconds later on a driving layup by Sears, who led her team with 15 points. "One of my teammates said just go," Sears explained. "The last two had come out, but she said the next one would go in, so the credit goes to (senior forward) Amanda Prestwich." After a turnover by the T'Wolves, Sears found junior center Ryan Littlefield under the basket for an easy score METAL ROOFING )Buy A Bundle, - . Call MElALfTiart METAL AND M O I 181 South taw East iehi ur M-F Group Reservation Special FREE Stephen's Cocoa & Churros Promo code: GR07 Reservation must be made by March 31, 2007 Minimum group size 20 people 3 day advance reservation required COBB CONDIENorth County Timpanogos'; Noelle Sanders goes for two against Lone Peak on Tuesday. that put her team up for good. A Timpanogos miss set up the wild scramble that resulted in the difficult call. The Timberwolf comeback was led by their free throw shooting (19-of-25 for the game) and the play of senior forward Cali Nelson, who led all scorers with 16 points. "Lone Peak is a hard team to come back on," said Timpanogos head coach Liz Darger. They rarely miss their opportunities. Our girls hustled their guts out and I'm proud of them" Both teams now head to the state tournament, which begins at UVSC next Tuesday. The top-seeded Knights will face Clearfield at 5:50 p.m., while the Timberwolves meet Kearns at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9 BOYS BASKETBALL I Pleasant Grove 85, Timpanogos 76: At Pleasant Grove, in a double-overtime scoring fest, Pleasant Grove hung on in a thriller, finally putting away a feisty Timpanogos team in Region 4 boys basketball. Big players shine in big games, and both the Vikings' Tallon Robertson and the Timberwolves Tim-berwolves Skyler Halford did just that. Robertson scored 36 points and had 14 rebounds to lead the home team, while Hal-ford Hal-ford came up with 33 points, including four 3-pointers, along with five steals. Timpanogos maintained the lead for most of the game, but the Region 4-leading Vikings Vi-kings never stopped fighting. Down 76-74 with two minutes remaining the in the second overtime, C.J. Wilcox hit his fifth trey of the game from the corner, putting his team ahead. The Timberwolves didn't score again, and free throws for P.G. slowly put the game out of reach for the visitors. Wilcox ended the night with 20 points. "This was a huge game; it was a gigantic game," said Pleasant Grove coach Randy McAllister. "My initial reaction is to compliment Timpanogos. All the credit goes to that team and their coaching staff. They gave us more than we ever wanted. I'm proud of the way our guys battled. We recovered recov-ered just in the nick of time." In both regulation and at the end of the first overtime, Timpanogos had chances to upset Pleasant Grove, but BUNDLE LOTS! $ave A Bundle! Over 16,000 sqft. Availablel Many Colors To Choose From 29 Gauge & 26 Gauge Mixed Lengths Today - These Wont Last! TAR-i'm f 6-5 8gt 8-Noon fell just short. After two free throws by Robertson that narrowed nar-rowed the Timberwolf lead to 63-61 with less than two minutes remaining, Pleasant Grove forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass. LeSean Wilcox drove down the 'ane, converting a finger roll to tie it up. It was Wilcox's first two points of the game. Timpanogos' Nate Henshaw had a wide-open 3 to win in regulation, but his shot rattled in-and-out, hit the back of the rim five times, then fell harmlessly harm-lessly away, sending the game into overtime. The first overtime finish was deja vu, with Wilcox again slicing slic-ing into the paint for another scoop shot that tied the game at 72, leaving Timpanogos again with a chance to win. But another an-other potential game-winning 3-point 3-point attempt missed, and Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove lived to see another four minutes of overtime. Ryan Clarke had 12 and Colton Willman scored nine points and grabbed 10 rebounds re-bounds to help Timpanogos, which hit everything it threw at the basket in the first half. The T'Wolves led by 14 at the half, thanks in large part to 19 first-half points by Halford. Meanwhile, the Vikings looked shaky offensively, though two notable highlights occurred when Robertson slammed down a pair of posterizing alley -oops. In the third quarter, the Vikings Vi-kings put big man C.J. Wilcox on Halford and Wilcox stuck to him tight as Halford didn't score a point in the period. Robertson hit jumper after jumper from the free throw line extended and the Vikings, who outrebounded the Timberwolves Tim-berwolves 41-26, used second-chance second-chance opportunities to make a comeback. I Jordan Christiansen filed this report. GIRLS BASKETBALL t Pleasant Grove 65, Timpanogos 56: At Pleasant Grove, Timpanogos' quest towards a region re-gion title matchup against Lone Peak hit a speed bump on Thursday Thurs-day night. Actually it was more like a wall and the T'Wolves provided the bricks. Timpanogos shot itself out of championship contention after a dismal shooting performance against the Vikings. Pleasant Grove was happy to take advantage ad-vantage of the T'Wolves' off night and got the win. "Basically we couldn't hit a shot. You have games where you're on and games where you're off," said Timpanogos coach Liz Darger. "We weren't just missing outside shots, but layups and free throws too." Shooting wasn't the only area where Timpanogos struggled as the normally solid rebounding team wasn't as tenacious te-nacious as they normally are. "We weren't tough on the boards and that was our main goal going in," Darger said. "Our girls played hard but they didn't play focused." As if the shooting and rebounding re-bounding woes weren't bad enough, the T'Wolves were also forced to play much of the game without Cali Nelson, who battled sickness and foul trouble trou-ble before fouling out midway through the third quarter. "Cali was sick and was not playing well," Darger said. "Her fouling out early hurt us." In addition to Nelson, Stacy Bartholomew and Amy Weitzeil also fouled out in the tightly called game. The win was crucial for Peace Looking For a Great DOUR? MiffftGim an Richard K. Sharp, M.D. DryCreek Family Practice 766-4214 We Accept Most Insurance Plans 5500 N. RUNNINQCREEfrWHEIjl Pleasant Grove as it solidified its place in the playoffs. For Timpanogos the loss will serve as a wake-up call going into the playoffs. "Our region is tough enough where there are no gimmie games," Darger said. "You have to be up every night. Pleasant Grove's a good team." Wednesday, Feb. 7 BOYS BASKETBALL I Timpanogos 68, American Fork 53: Trailing American Fork by three at the half, the Timpanogos boys basketball team went on a 13-2 run to start the third quarter. The T'Wolves then outscored the visiting Cavemen 18-6 in the third quarter and rolled to a big Region 4 victory. Nate Henshaw was the difference differ-ence maker, as he was virtually unstoppable from anywhere on the court. He hit back-tc-back 3-pointers 3-pointers in the tightly contested third quarter, on his way to a game-high 19 points. "Henshaw had a great game; he has kind of disappeared from our offense lately, but he was unbelievable for us tonight," to-night," said Timpanogos coach Clay Anderson. "The game ball should go to him." To start the second half, both teams looked sloppy as they combined for turnovers on six out of the first seven possessions posses-sions of the second half. The difference in the game was that the Timberwolves' sloppy play stopped and the Cavemen's Cave-men's continued. Timpanogos employed a match-up zone that gave American Fork headaches head-aches on the offensive end. A situation that epitomized the game occurred with 228 to play in the third quarter. Henshaw Hen-shaw ripped down an offensive rebound and missed, and the scrappy Skyler Halford flew in, got the ball in the air and missed a putback. After the Cavemen Cave-men pulled the rebound down, Henshaw and Halford double-teamed double-teamed the rebounder and Halford Half-ord stripped the ball, dove on the floor and tipped it to Henshaw for the layup and a 39-31 lead. "Our kids came out hard and we told them that we are in a fight for our playoff lives every single night," Anderson said. "We told them that we have to treat every game like a playoff game and they did they came out and out-scrapped them." Halford had been ill and it was unsure whether or not he would even play in the game. Not only did he play, but he came up with timely shots and threaded the needle on some sweet assists. He ended up with a very efficient 17 points. "Skyler came in and no one knew if he would play because he had been throwing up all day. We didn't even know until game time whether he would play or not," Anderson said. "He was down and dead throwing up all day and he ends up almost playing the whole game for us." Starting center Tyler Ash-worth Ash-worth also had a big game, as his jumper was money all night long. Ashworth finished with 14 points and altered Cavemen shots all game. "Tyler has just come on for us the last four games. We didn't even have an inside game the first eight games of the year, and all of a sudden he has just started to play well," Anderson said. "He's always been a good defender, but he has started playing offense." I Jared Hunsaker filed this report. of Mind with Let Us Insure Your Home Pi rpOOl |