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Show Piute Thunders Back to Win Region Title byJohnYardley SALINA Junior guard Tim Westwood hit a three point play with only eight seconds remaining to cap a furious comeback by the Piute Thunderbirds enroute to an 88-85 win over Enterprise last Saturday night, The victory by the Thunderbirds gave them their first region title ever. With just over six minutes remaining in the title game, it looked as if the T-Birds were again going to take a tough tourney loss, but coach Greg Allen's crew showed an extreme amount of poise and character as they fought their way back for a shopping 19 points deficit. Piute employed a tenacious full court defense during the last period. Senior guard Marty Cleave must have accounted for at least eight steals down the stretch. Westwood took game honors with 32 big counters, Joe Dalton had a great offensive game with 25, and Cleave finished with 15. Others who played significant roles for the T-Birds were the three Jessen brothers, Brent, Eric and Aaron; Bobby Gleave and Eric Jolley. Enterprise played a great game, especially after the 61-59 double overtime victory the night before over Danny Hill's Gunnison Bulldogs. Kenneth Gentry led the offensive parade for the Wolves with 25, while Sean Shurtliff scored 24, and little brother Larry B. Shurtliff nailed 19. The Shurtliffs father Larry is one of the coaches of the Wolves and was named Region 12 Coach of the Year. Coach Shurtliff is a fine coach and a real gentleman. Local teams did not fare too well on the final weekend. Panguitch dropped a close 54-51 game to Kanab on Friday and Bryce Valley was topped by Parowan 92-69. Panguitch had to overcome a last minute auto accident involving star center Heath Sartinl in its game against Kanab. Sartinl did play the game, but the mental and the physical turmoil certainly did not help. He still finished with 16 in the game as the Bobcats leading scorer. Nate Brinkerhoff , suffering from a badly sprained ankle, scored 10. Others scoring in the losing cause for PHS were Wayne Sawyer with 8, Steve Burton with 7 Tony Knighton with 6,. and. DeWayne Sawyer and . Travis Fagg, two each. Kanab.. slipped away with the "W" 54-51. Bryce Valley did riot play as well as they did against Beaver the week before. The Mustangs fell behind by a 42-29 score at half, and never made a real serious run until a solid fourth period with 24 points. The final 92-69. One real bright spot for BV was senior forward Tim Feltner who put on a great shooting exhibition with 31 points. The big senior had an excellent game In finishing his Sean Chynoweth 9, and Mike Rees 8 - career for the Mustangs. Brother to finish the scoring for Bryce Trent scored 12, Charles Henry 9, Valley Nathan Brinkerhoff (30) and Wayne Sawyer (52) battle for the rebound against Kanab. Kanab stop- i At any rate, "the bus moves on" ' as they say and the State nament 1-A style is on this weekend 1 Piute High School won the Region 12 Basketball Tournament Saturday. Team members and staff include, front, left: Terrell Delange, Cory Norman, John Jessen, Coach Greg Allen, Jason Torgerson and Mike Lay. Back, left: Todd Krletzer, Chris Mullins, Robby Gleave', ' at the Marriott Center. Piute kicks off the action Wednesday in the first game of the tournament. Many of the Region 12 games can be heard on KMXU FM at 100.1 from Manti or on KBRE from Cedar City. Eric Jolley, Brent Jessen, Joe Dalton, David Brindley, Aaron Jessen, Marty Gleave, Eric Jessen, Tim Westwood, Teddy Lewis and Lance Snow. ' n iiiibi hwii. wariT-fv n nil unffll ped the Bobcats 54-51 as Panguitch was eliminated from second round of region tournament in Salina. |