Show SATURDAY March 6 2004 PREP BAS H Scoreboard D7 Hockey D4 Weather BA i D 1 J mnMNi'fe(M 08 PACERS END JAZZ WINNING STREAK CURRANT CREEK POWER PLANT GETS K3AD3 Essslstss Class GO-AHE- AD D9 Boys Semifinals 5-- A Kurt Kragthorpe E Center? It should be U for upsets 7- - Brash trash-talkin- Hunter in title game g Center on Friday "That" said Hunter center Carl Swani-gathe mixture of sweet WEST VALLEY CITY — Presumably moves stratospheric confidence and the Cottonwood Colts will show up for toemotion "was one boys basketball state day's Class crazy wild game" Hunter won it at the free- championship game Then again the Hunter Wolfrom HUNTER 48 throw line going verines are already telling them the stripe to Brighton's not to bother Talk is cheap but BRIGHTON 46 The Bengals made five more field the Wolverines already proved goals that their first Region 3 title and historic But the difference was Otis Nelson's season is no fluke short jumper with 28 seconds remaining With their mouths flapping elbows flythat gave Hunter a lead "It was a ing and fingers waggling the tournaregular basket for me" Nelson shrugged ment's Bad Boys played their way into "I didn't realize how much time was on the school's first championtheir clock" ship game appearance edging Region 2 Brighton had two chances to answer in a spirited inbut the first was wiped away by a strange champion Brighton tense and semifinal at the E See HUNTER D2 By Jay days at the WESTstrange rink For the first time the E Center is and staging the Class boys basketball tournaments also known as the Equal Opportunity Open The only thing more surprising than the list of finalists — Cottonwood Provo and Payson and Hunter in — in tonight's doubleheader is in the partial roll of who's missing: Brighton Alta Lone Peak and Timp-vie4-- 5-- 5-- 4-- This is weird wild stuff Seeding? Irrelevant Regular-seasorecords? Meaningless The Salt Lake Tribune's rankings? Wrong That's not necessarily a commentary on the work of our fine young prep writer Andrew Aragon although I would hope for better analysis from his replacement next year In Brighton might have saved our rankings' credibility but the No 1 Bengals lost 48 46 to No 3 Hunter in Friday's semifinals At least Andrew picked Hunter to win by two In the top five teams were dismissed early leaving four semifinal-ist- s with a combined regular-seasorecord of That's the nature of the boys basketball in Utah where there's no equivalent of Skyline football or Mountain View girls basketball Just look at the diversity of the past five winners: Alta Davis West Jordan Copper Hills Mountain View After tonight you can add to that list the first state champion from Granite School District since Skyline in 1977 It will be Hunter trying to match its first football trophy or a Cottonwood team that last reached the state finals in 1987 The Colts have lost eight games this season and finished third in Region 3 although coach Blair pointed out his team was only two points away from a league title and leading scorer Wes Anderson has been bothered by a back injury all year As Martineau said "It only counts how you're playing at the end" The final four was an even more unusual collection after No 1 Lone Peak No 2 Timpview and No 3 Mountain View were bounced in the quarterfinals and No 4 Olympus and No 5 Woods Cross lost in the first round Provo eliminated Woods Cross and Lone Peak before handling Bonneville in the semifinals Not bad for a program that entered this tournament with a record in Region 6 good for a No 4 seed The flurry is fine with coach Craig Drury whose previous title teams were far more dominant all year "All of our losses have been close games but like I told the team you couldn't write a better storybook ending" Drury said Then there's Payson which went in the regular season but kept imwin proving through Friday's over American Fork which had ousted Mountain View It has been that kind of week What did Timpview coach Perry Wildeboer say Thursday? "We're in shock This isn't the way we thought our season would end" There's a lot of that going around It must have something to do the introduction of basketball at the E Center where the Ragu Classic prep tournament last December marked the hoops debut for a venue designed primarily for hockey indoor soccer and indoor n f Drew The Salt Lake Tribune VALLEY CITY— These r n d i 5-- r 47-4- 6 48-4- 6 f The Hunter bench j v " i 4-- -- n C ! 45-3- 8 big-scho- victory over Brighton on Friday Colts in the tinaJ Aragon Sail hike Tribune 5-- w -- 'S'u± 5-- ' V y) - 53-4- 2 pm f A win today would give Cottonwood its first boys basketball championship in the school's history The Colts haven't played for a state championship since losing to Bonneville in 1987 Th is d idn't seem to be the year that Cottonwood would COTTONWOOD 53 return to the title game The NORTHRIDGE 42 Colts took third place in Region 3 and lost eight games this season "It's kind of surreal isn't it?" Cottonwood ward Wes Anderson said While the Colts' run has been surprising isn't doing it with smoke and mirrois Northridge found out about Cottonwood's gritty defense from the start of Friday's game The Colts held the Knights to four points in tljB first quarter and forced four turnovers Northridge made two field goals on its first 10 possessions After Andre Carter hit threes to end the first quarter and start the second Cottonwood had built a 17-- lead ! Knights coach CK Hansen said his team never recovered Northridge's normally potent scorprs struggled with their shooting early and it messJd with their confidence £ "It snowballed" Hansen said "It took us quite a ' while to get going" Cottonwood however had no problem making 35-ye- back-to-bac- k 4 10-1- 1 43-4- 0 COPY1 1 - late-seaso- n kkraglhor pefcsltribcom I WEST VALLEY CITY Placed in the same half of the bracket in the Class state tournament as Jordan Alta and Northridge the Cottonwood Colts were expected to be history Now Cottonwood has the chance to make history The Colts continued their unlikely run in the tournament with a win over Northridge in the semifinals Cottonwood will face Region 3 rival Hunter in today's championship game at 5 5-- 5 prime-viewin- nt 'The 4-- tournament and provides enough seats even if there's something Jarring about seeing a basketball floor so far from the hockey boards — kind of like the Final Four in a f(K)tba)l stadium After tonight two teams will have only great memories of the place while others will consider it haunted Which makes it Just like every other state tournament court only with ice underneath two-poi- By Andrhw Mar-tinea- u easy-acces- N f Shot at history: Cottonwood has a chance for its first state championship 5-- football s The building offers an location Is the right size for a state - 5-- A championship game following a ' IU I Danny Chan jt7V Sub Itikt Tribune celebrates the team's first trip to the Class 5-- - f iiljV '!?- 1 j S Sec COTTONWOOD Dannv Chan XjiflbtSalt lukt Tnlmne Cottonwood's Johnny Carter lands on top of Northridge's Rustln Miller going after the loose ball contest Cottonwood will meet Region 3 rival Hunter In today's championship game In their semifinal 5-- A Class 4-- A ' 1X2 losi US CLASS CLASS 4-- Provo downs Bonneville in semifinals Manilla B2 Duchesne advance to final D2 Boys Semifinals lions claw their way into first title game since 72 By Andrew Aragon The Salt Lake Tril)une WEST VALLEY CITY - The situa- tion looked bleak The Payson Lions trailed American Fork by five points with 2:39 remaining in the boys basketball semifinals The Cavemen had made 77 percent of their foul shots during the state 4-- 1 tournament and had committed few fourth-quarte- r mistakes in wins over Olympus and Mountain View But a de- fensive adjust- PAYSCN 43 ment a little AMERICAN FC£X 40 pep talk from the coach and three-poin- t a play by Tyler Newbold led Payson to a win over last-secon- 43-4- its Region 6 rival The Lions will face another league rival for the Class championship when they play Provo tonight at 7:30 pm in the E Center "I asked them 'How bad do you want it?' " Lions coach Dan Lunt said "We had to go out and make the difference American Fork isn't going to make a lot of mistakes so we had to force the 4-- issue" So for the first time in Friday's game Lunt switched his defense to a press The Lions forced three quick turnovers and took a lead on a three-poin- t play by Blake Francom Newbold's three-poin- t play with 15 seconds remaining sent Pay-soto its first state championship game since 1972 full-cou- 40-3- 8 n Sre PAYSON 1)2 J |