OCR Text |
Show 6 HIE. SAMPLER pirit Friday, Mar. 26, 1982 Witkowskis Jumper At Buzzer Wins It this type of offense and only rarely did the Buffaloes apply the type of sure that might have upset the Color them Destinies Darlings," or Miracle but most of all color them A Cinderella Team Mus-Champi- The Dugway Mustangs are Utahs 1A state basketball champions! Players Steve Bruce, Jeff Brothers, John DeVVitt, Bob Jackson, Rob Kroff, Garth Lawrence, Paul Lloyd, Steve . Champions. For that is what they are Champions. Dugway reached that lofty peak Saturday night at 9:03 p.m. when John Witkowskis jump shot with cme second on the clock ripped through the bottom of the net giving the Mustangs a pulsating 38-3- 6 win defending champion Valley. v First Ever It marked the first time in the his- tory of Dugway High School that the Mustangs have earned a state cham- pionship in athletics and is the first state title for Coach George Bruce and his assistant of nine years Carl 15-fo- ot end-ov- ed with Dugway in front er 31-2- 8. Frantic Fourth Only 13 points were scored in the final period but it was replete. with thrills as both teams realized that it was Championship time. . Valley got its final lead at 35-3- 4 halfway into the period. Mohammed drove the middle to put Dugway back in the lead, 36-3- with 3:33 remaining and the game still up for grabs, A poor Valley pass was recovered by Dugway and the Mustangs put e their plan into action again, For 1:13 the Mustangs controlled the ball before the alert Valley defense in-- . tercepted the ball. The Buffaloes took a shot at the 1:17 second mark but it missed and for .the ony time in the tourney Dugway lost its cool, Making the prize even sweeter was the fact that it was earned the hard way. After disposing of three tough opponents, Dugway faced the state's number one ranked team, the 5 i. champion Valley. Valleys team was experienced and talented, averaging nearly five inches per man taller than the Dug- way challenger. The Buffaloes had lost only two games in 18 outings schools). They had one (those to of the states highest scorers in Wayne Jones who was the most valuable player in last years tournament and a unanimous choice for e. Valley was a proud and potent team a championship aggregation in every sense of the word. ' Dugway, on paper, and in many followers eyes couldnt match Valley in these attributes. But Dugway had heart. So much heart and courage that one had to wonder how such small bodies could house hearts so big and courage so great. It was this heart and courage plus, confidence and determination and more than a little ability that Dugway went forth to battle mighty Valley. Game PlanWe know we couldnt match Valleys speed and height, so we de- cided to control the tempo of the giame and deny Jones the ball, Coach Bruce said in explaining his game plan. This was achieved by putting 58 Steve Bruce in front of the 65 Valley ace in a box and one defense, with Garth Lawrence moving in behind Jones whenever the big kid tried to toward the basket.. Bruce and Lawrence did an effec- tive job on Jones, even though Jones high for Valley with 16 points those points didnt crucify the Mus-tangs like Jones' scoring had des- troyed other teams. Dugway also controlled the tern- po of the game with a deliberate. patient brand ofball. For some reason Valley was willing to let Dugway use all-stat- ul When Dugway captured the 1A State Championship last Saturday, marked the fourth state championship captured by Tooele County high schools this school year. Previously, the Grantsville boys and girls had won state titles in tennis and the Tooele boys won' the 1982 swimming championships. pressing defense caused Valley to - - throw the ball out of bounds. There were 63 ticks left cm the clock, For 55 seconds Dugway worked the perimeter before calling time out with eight seconds remaining. During the time out Coach Bruce outlined an inbounds play from the center of the court which worked to perfection, A Five Man Effort Brothers passed in to Bruce who drove toward the baseline drawing the Valley defenders with him. When he had those defenders out of position he whirled and fired the ball back to the weak side to Witkowski who used screens by Lawrence and Mohammed to unleash the that gave The setting Dugway s conquest was the Dixie Jr. College gym in St. George, which is comparable to Tooeles gym, with a slightly larger seating capacity. foir It didnt take long for Dugway to capture the hearts and support of the fans in Utahs Dixie. Dugways players were much smaller than their opponents, and their hustling, fight- ing brand of basketball against seemingly superior odds made them the favorites of the fans. Even the teams Dugway beat later cheered for the 15-foot- eir Dugway the precious Mustangs. first-ev- er championship. There was one second on the clock and Valley called time out as the Dug-driv- e way rooters spilled on the floor to em- brace their heroes. After clearing the floor Valley tempted a floor length pass, but the inbminds pass hit the ceiling and the battle for the championship became a dream for Dugway and a nightmare for Valley, That second trip to the center of the court by the Dugway fans was just as pleasant as the first. In the championship game. Valley had lots of rooters, because Orderville is less than 50 miles from St. George. But Dugway more than matched the Buffalo cheering section, with Dugways regular rooters from 300 miles away, plus the hundreds the Mustangs picked up throughout the tourney. at-w- as - Everybody but Valley loved Dugway. Shirt Helps Dugway Coach George Bruce would never admit that he is superstitious, and certainly we are not going to accuse him of such shenanigans. But it is a fact that coach Bruce wore the same unwashed shirt throughout the tourney.. It must have worked because Dugway was undefeated every time the likeable coach wore the shirt. Perhaps the shirt should go into the Dugway trophy case, along with the nets off the hoop and the big gold trophy. In addition to the scintillating Dug- -' way play on the court, the real stu- dents of the game readily recognized that the Dugway coaching played a major role in the Mustangs stampede to the championship. Bruce and his assistant Carl Roberts have toadied the Mustangs for the past nine years and have compiled an amazing record. In nine years as a coaching team, Bruce and Roberts have won 196 games and lost 50. They have never missed guiding their team to the state tournament and have won the' Division champion 8 of those 9 years. No Losing Seasons They have never had a losing season, with their poorest season coming in 1977 when they broke even with an 1 record. The best years were in. 1980 and this year when they racked up 18-- 4 records, which inlcudes pre ' 11-1- comment after the Dugway-Piut- e game Thursday. Bruce should have added, They work very good . It was Steve Bruce and Jeff Brothers, Dugways busy Bs who guided the Mustangs to a con- vincing 68-5- 6 win over Piute in these-cond round of the 1A state tourney being played in St. George. Bruce and Brothers the "B boys Mustangs, At the half Piute led 29-2Piute Held Scoreless The charged up Mustangs opened the second half with a rash of points outscoring Piute 10-- 0 in the first two minutes. Lawrence tipped one in, Witkowski got a steal and a bucket, Lawrence two from the foul line and a and Brothers put Dugway in lay-i- n front 37-2- 9 with a short .jumper, Piute never threatened again. In fact near the end the Mustangs were loping. along on the high side of a 64-3- 7 lead. As in the first game against Kanab, Dugway was on the short end of the 7. painted a gorgeous panorama for the. Dugway fans. But they werent alone as John Witkowski, Joe Mohammed and Garth Lawrence skillfully blend- ed their many talents into the deve- loping work of art. Guided by Bruce and Brothers, Mohammed and Witkowski, Lawrence performed the rough, heavy duty work underneath the boards and this inside-outsid- e cbm- - bination wrecked havoc with the . . 13-1- first quarter lead. There was nothing to choose be- f T-Bir- ds. tour-ne- y And it all came to the thrilling cli- hammed (39 each), Steve Bruce (37) and super-su- b John DeWitt with 17 counters. . max of winning a state championship. It couldnt have happened to a nicer pair of guys, which was visibly demonstrated when nearly every coach in the tourney came in after the championship game to congratulate Brjice and Roberts. There was also, more than a handful of players from opposing teams that found their way into the Dugway dressing room to shake the hands of the victorious Mustangs. Dugway not only made a lot of admirers for themselves in St. George, they also made a lot of friends. Big Six Mainly Dugway used six players to gamer the title. It was Steve Bruce and Jeff Brothers, dubbed the B Boys, Joe Mohammed, Garth Lawrence, John Witkowski and John DeWitt that performed the most and the best on the court for Dugway. n kids But the support this contribench from the Dugway got buted immensely to Dugways success. The reserves on the bench cheered constantly throughout every game which kept the adrenalin constantly flowing. half-doze- For the record, Dugways total scoring was led by hero John Witkowski with 53 points. Garth Lawrence (50), Jeff Brothers and Joe Mo 6 Friday And, like its previous two wins (Kanab and Piute) Dugway used the same formula against the Bobcats. brilliant tandem guard line operated by the B boys Bruce A (Steve) and Brothers (Jeff) that func- tioned all over the court, plus effec- tive, devastating work under the boards by John Witkowski, Garth Lawrence, Joe Mohammed and John DeWitt proved to be more than Panguitch could handle. Fast Start out at the opening came Dugway n full a tip-of- f court, applying Bruce-coacha that press only George team can apply. Panguitch s feared offense was rendered almost helpless in the face of Dugways harassing tactics. Mohammed, Brothers, Lawrence man-toma- ski . and n 59-4- Mustangs overcame this disadvantage by strategically getting better posi- tion and blocking out the taller Piute players for the defensive rebounds. On the offensive boards, clever maneuvering by Lawrence, Witkow- sld and Mohammed put them in vantageous positions to receive the crisp, sharp passes from the B boys, which usually resulted in points, All of these were letahal weapons that struck down the -- post-seaso- destroyed Panguitch night in the 1A tourney. height department. However, the Thundeibirds.' Piute Leads Piute spurted in front first, taking a 12-- 7 lead six minutes into the. first quarter when Witkowski went on a one-ma- n scoring binge. Firing from the 12-1-5 foot range, connected three times while Piute was held scoreless as the 2 Mustangs pranced to a narrow . 21-1- were beautiful and their artistry season, regular, games. Dugway is familiar with tourney action. After all the Mustangs have been in the Sweet Sixteen for eleven consecutive years (two under Coach Walden Gurney and nine under the guidance of present Coach George Bruce). What they arent used to is the rarified atmosphere of a championship game. Never in the 11 previous tourney trips have the Mustangs reached the finals, but that is the lofty spot Coach George Bruce ami his Cinderella team were in Saturday. Dugway scaled the heights with another methodical exhibition of devastating basketball as the Mustangs tween the two teams in the second period as they matched point for point. Piute regained the lead two minutes into the period on Kennedy Sylvesters side shot and spurted in 5 front before Witkowski, Mohammed and Bruce rallied the where they s There may be some who will say that Dugway had no business winning the gold trophy. After all they had been beaten by 10 points by South Rich in their final game before the tournament. The Mustangs were much smaller than any of their opponents, they were a young team who counted so much on the guard line consisting of a junior and a sophomore. They certainly didnt have the' reputation of some of the other teams, and were ranked fifth behind Valley, Panguitch, Gunnison and South Rich in the final coaches poll. But dont you believe it. Dugway proved to be a champion in every sense of the word. Not only did they completely destroy Kanab (76-62- ), Piute (6858) and Panguitch (59-46- ), an average point spread of more than 12 points, Dugway beat the defending champions. No team every deserved a championship more. Panguitch Falls Piute No Challenge My guard line works very hard, was Dugway Coach George Bruces semi-final- Tidbits Tantalize Tourney In the battle tinder the boards T-fo- - Dugways Garth Lawrence and Joe Mohammed battle the boards, then attempt to second round romp over Flute vaulted Dugway Into the halt the beginning of Piute fast break during the Mustangs win over Piute. The defeated Panguitch enroute to the state championship. after the missed shot a Dugway player swore at an official and was assessed a technical. . for Jones shot and made the score the at 3&36 with Valley tying 1:16 remaining and Valley controlling the ball. However, as it had done so often throughout the tourney, that Dugway 3-- A i Stop the Outlet! pre-gam- favorite, "defending ey er at the half. That three point lead lasted through the third quarter which Roberts. pre-tourn- For nearly three minutes neither team scored before Bruce opened the from the scoring with a comer. Valleys Boyd Harris tied it at 2-- 2 but Jeff Brothers drove the length was fouled of the floor for a lay-u- p, and converted to put Dugway in front 5-- 2 and the pattern of the game was set. Dugway did get in front by five, its biggest lead, 13-- 8 midway in the second period on two buckets by the hot shooting John Witkowski. That lead didnt last long as Vic Blackburn and Jones put Valley in front by one before Joe Mohammed and Bruce gave Dugway a 19-1- 6 lead 12-foot- Lundy, Joe Mohammed, Buddy Smith, Larry Smith, and John Witkowski; managers Todd Chris- tiansen and Terry Duncan and Coaches George Bruce and Cairl . Roberts now wear the mantle of , on. tang offense. . . rs, pres-Make- ed Just Like Glue Jeff Brothers (14) and Steve Bruce (hidden) were on opponents ball handlers captured the fancy of 1A tourney fans in St. George. ys 1 and Bruce had Dugway into a full gallop early and by the end of the first quarter the Mustangs were in front 13-- 6. There was no let up by Dugway in the second period as Panguitch could not keep up with the pace Dugway-wasetting. By halftime the maroon and white perpetual motion machine was in front 30-1The rejuvinated Panguitch team opened with a fluty after the halftime intermission, outscoring Dugway 10-- 4 in the first five minutes and getting to within 10 points, 34-2Then Brothers lit the fuse for Dugway with a foul shot. Rory Sopers breathed life into the Bobcat faithful with a driving lay-i- n as Panguitch drew closer at 35-2By this time the fuse had burned itself out and Dugway was ready to s 4. 4. 6. explode. And explode they did, fired up by DeWitt. John scored a fielder and 2x2 from the foul line and the show was 5 vm uau iiui UUl U1 gi trying to harness the lightening quit Dugway team and in their frustratic couldnt do much but foul in a despe ate attempt to slow down the froi running Mustangs Panguitchs effor were futile as Dugways score contii ued to mount from charity circle. Panguitchs Kris Barney shreddc the nets for three late-gam-e field to make the final score more res goa able but the points ame afterpec tl issue had been settled and against tl Dugway |