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Show Cyan Magenta Yellow Black A8 Under pressure Sanpete Messenger / Sanpete Messenger-Gunnison Valley Edition Wednesday, March 2, 2005 Juan Diego pressure stymies potent Manti offense in state final By John Hales Staff writer RICHFIELD—The pressure was too much for the Manti Templars last Saturday night when they suffered a devastating 38-68 loss to the Soaring Eagle of Juan Diego in the 2A state basketball finals. It wasn’t the pressure of the big game. Manti’s head coach Mark Hugentobler said the boys have been there before. According to Hugentobler, the core players of the Templars’ basketball roster have played in five championship games: two football and three basketball. “If it would have been a lack of heart, a lack of courage or a lack of desire, that would have been one thing. But it wasn’t,” Hugentobler said. Instead, it was Juan Diego’s unrelenting pressure and trapping defense that put the Templars on their heels early. The Templars were briefly tied at two with Juan Diego, but the Soaring Eagle pressure forced Templar turnovers, which were converted into points during a 9-0 run by Juan Diego early in the game. The Templars were getting looks at the basket, but nothing was falling, with the exception of two free throws by Travis Thompson, and a 3-pointer by Taylor Salanoa. Manti finished the quarter down by 14, 7-21. “They [Juan Diego] came out and hit some shots and we didn’t and ended up looking over our shoulders,” Hugentobler said. Juan Diego went on a six-point scoring run early in the second quarter, which was only ended when Devin Frischknecht, who scored a team-high 16 points, grabbed an offensive board and put the ball back for two. But the Templars could never find the key to stopping Juan Diego’s Marquis Wilson and Mike Larsen, both of whom reached double-digit scoring by the end of the first half. Juan Diego continued to extend its lead through the second half, but the Templars won a moral victory and kept tournament MVP Wilson to four points in the final two quarters. According to Hugentobler, the game came down to a slow start from which the Templars could not recover. “We didn’t come out very well. We got ourselves in a hole and we couldn’t get out.” Manti’s road to the final started on Thursday with a 38-29 win over the Rowland Hall Lions. The Templars struggled against a patient Rowland Hall team early on and faced a 1-7 deficit until Thompson hit the back end of a pair of free throws at 1:32 of the first. The Templars tried to force turnovers from the slowmoving Lion offense, which produced points for Rowland Hall. “We were giving them too many easy things,” coach Hugentobler said. Manti started playing as patiently as the Lions and ALL PHOTOS SEAN HALES / MESSENGER PHOTO (Above) a despondent Templar team waits-out the agonizing final minutes of their 38-68 loss to Juan Diego in the 2-A state final. (Right) Juan Diego Soaring Eagle Marquis Wilson puts the hard foul on Templar Travis Thompson to prevent an easy fast-break score. (See “Templars” on A10) (Above) Devin Frischknecht puts up a second-chance fallaway jumper against Rowland Hall in the quarter finals on Thursday. (Left) Taylor Salanoa gets fouled by a Juab player in Friday’s semi-final match-up against the Wasps. (Right) Josh Hugentobler uses any means necessary to get to the basket during Saturday’s final against Juan Diego. These four players along with Brett Brown (not pictured) formed the core of Manti’s successful year. All five are seniors and played their last game against Juan Diego last Saturday. |
