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Show Highland Ends Brave Dream By DAVE WIGHAM Clipper Sports HIGHLAND -- Going into the game with Highland the Braves knew that to keep any dreams of getting back into the state tournament tourna-ment they would have to knock off the Rams. For over three periods it appeared as though the dream would continue as the Braves led but then the pressure of the Rams paid off and Highland came away with a 67-62 win. THE LOSS ended all hopes and dreams of the Braves of getting back into the state event. Usually when a club battles the press of the Rams they can be assured of plenty of action at the foul line but in this battle it was the reverse, a fact that had Braves coach Mike Hall baffled. "Someone explain to me how a team can be pressing you and you get called for the fouls. We outscored them easily from the field but it's tQugh to win when they get to the foul line that ' often." FOR THE RECORD the Braves went to the charity stripe a grand total of 15 times for the game, only two of those were in the first half, while the home Rams were at the stripe a total of 35 times, connecting on 27 of them. "It just seemed like everytime they went to the basket we got called for the foul" lamented Hall. The game began more like a nightmare for the Braves than a dream as the Rans came out - cooking and quickly built up a 8-1 advantage. "If you come out slow at Highland you can expect them to jump all over you and that's exactly what happened" Hall noted. Bountiful then slowed down the tempo, it had become a track meet for awhile, and once they got control con-trol they crept back into the game and only trailed 12-10 at the end of the first quarter. ONCE THE Bountiful side got the tempo in their favor they played the Rams on even terms, in fact they took the lead and held it for the most part of the game. The Braves were up by three at the intermission and then they still held a four point advantage heading into the final minutes of the game. As it turned out though turnovers spelt the difference in this outing as the Braves committed commit-ted 15 of their 17 turnovers in the game in the second half. "We still had a chance to win in the final minutes but then we really committed some costly turnovers" Hall offered. THE BRAVE coaches were pleased with the overall effort of the club in this defeat, "the difference in the game was at the foul line. The first half was a pretty good ballgame but then the second half it became ragged" Hall concluded. con-cluded. Brent Bouvang had another good day for the Braves as he poured in a team high 20 points with teammate Troy Rawlings adding 14. Rod Faddis added 8 while sophomore Darren Dean contributed 6 points but more importantly he came up with 13 rebounds. For the Rams it was a three man attack with Cary Jenkins, Scott Grim and Brandon Burt doing the damage. IT WAS the type of game that Bountiful has come used to seeing as they led for the majority of the contest only to see the Rams go to the foul line in the final minutes, they shot 20 in the fourth period, to pull out the win. |