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Show Region 12 Tournament Opens Friday at Kanab By John Yardley With the regular season games now over, the Region 12 basketball train moves on to its most Important stop of the year in the annual edition of the Region 12 tournament. The tourney begins Friday at the new Kanab High School gymnasium and continues Saturday, March 3; Thursday, March 8; Friday, March 9 and concludes Saturday, March 10. The extra day this year takes care of the previously mandatory Monday playoff. All three Garfield County high schools open play tomorrow with Panguitch taking on Parowan at 4:30 p.m. and Bryce Valley gaining a rematch against in-county rival Escalante at 6:15 p.m. The winner of Panguitch Parowan takes on Beaver Saturday at 12:45 p.m. and the loser takes a bye. The winner of Bryce Valley -Escalante plays the winner of Milford-Wayne and the loser, of course, plays the loser of that encounter. Following is a listing of all games in the opening day: 11:00 a.m., Enterprise vs North Sevier; 12:45 p.m., Gunnison vs Valley; 4:30 p.m., Panguitch vs Parowan; 6:15 p.m. Bryce Valley vs Escalante; and 8 p.m., Milford vs Wayne. Piute, Kanab and Beaver all drew byes based on their season records. It should be an exciting tournament, as usual, with six different teams as possible winners as I view it. The games can be heard on KSUB AM and KSUB FM beginning at 11 tomorrow morning. In closing league action last week, Escalante hosted Piute and Milford. Despite playing hard, the Moquis lost both games. Dirk Durfey and Clint Porter both scored in double figures again in each game. Jerry Hawks, Rick Crawford, and David Reed have complemented the straight lineup very well with Ward Coombs and Lee Davis coming on to give significant constributions off the bench. This team may have come out a little short on the win column this season, but they are long on effort and hard work. We wish them well ,in the tournament play the next two weekends. Panguitch closed out its regular season with a loss to Gunnison on the Bobcat hardwood, 65-47. The game was really much closer than the final score might indicate as Panguitch led 27-26 at half time and Gunnison moved on top 39-36 after three periods. But the Bobcats, whose Coach Brian McAllister lay at home with the flu, were outscored 26-11 in the final stanza to fall by the final of 65-47. Gunnison placed five-players in double figures, while Panguitch was led by senior Kris Barney with 19 and junior Heath Sartini who hit for 15. The Bobcats only had four players in the scoring column. The game had no impact on the tournament and hopefully, the Panguitch crew can be up and ready for Parowan tomorrow. With a win over the Rams, the Bobcats would meet Beaver, a team that defeated Panguitch in overtime earlier in the year in Beaver. In local basketball action the Panguitch 3rd Ward juniors won the Region, Multi-Region and placed second in the Area tournament this week which concluded Saturday in St. George. The team was coached by Kay Engelstead and included Wayne and Dewayne Sawyer, Jeff Veater, Danny Frandsen, Raymond Roundy, Wally Dodds and Doug Henrie. Great work, team! Selected to recent sophomore tournament and freshman all-star teams have been; Tony Knighton at North Sevier; Ralph Perkins and Doug Henrie at the Panguitch Invitational and Perkins and Travis Fagg at the Wayne County Sophomore tourney. Congratulations to these players. In Bantams, the Panguitch team took the consolation championship at Kanab last Saturday with one loss and two victories. Clint Barney was named to the all-tournament team as he socred 26 and 33 in the final two games. Jason Orton swished the nets for 26 in another fine scoring spree. Finally, a large crowd enjoyed a basketball exhibition Monday at Panguitch as the Panguitch Alumni All-Stars pulled away to defeat the NFL All-Star Los Angeles Rams 112 to 101. Five former Panguitch All-Stars put on the finishing touches to put the game away after trailing throughout. Arlin Sawyer, Jeff Owens, Kevin Frandsen, Dale Orton and Donny Leach pushed the Panguitch team over the top in the end, Sawyer, my pick for the best all around ever at PHS, scored 39 points. Those 39 were highlighted by several pretty slam-dunks. Orton tanked 18, Leach 16, and Owens 14 to lead a balanced attack. Other players for Panguitch included Gary Owens, Dennis Henrie, Clint Pollock, Tod Trout, and Cherry Hatch, who also had an electrifying slam dunk "jam." Denny Orton was the coach in his professional debut. For the Ram team, Robert Taylor hit 34, mostly from downtown Panguitch and teammate George Farmer, the only Ram roster player on the squad gunned in 32. Bruce Dalton of Panguitch also played for the Rams. The muscle bound "Buzzard" fit right in with the football team. In all, it was a very entertaining game for the PHS athletic department. The crowd was great, undoubtedly because of the Rams forethought to distribute free tickets to the elementary school kids! A special half-time drawing won a Rams jacket for Nila Butterfleld, a T-shirt for Robert Fletcher from Cannonville and a Rams banner for Clint Marshall. Panguitch alumni basketball players, along with members of the Los Angeles Hams, gave those at tending the benefit game Monday night some real entertainment on the home court. |