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Show Region boys Talented Leopards topple Braves; Davis, Highland capture victories I By TOM HARALDSEN I Sports Editor I BOUNTIFUL All season long, coaches of teams playing East High have said that the Leopards may possess as much talent as any team in Region Four they just haven't ha-ven't put things together. Unfortunately Unfor-tunately for Bountiful High, they did it Friday night. The Leopards built a 21 point lead, then held off a determined fourth quarter effort by the Braves for an 81-70 win. East won despite the fact that three of its starters fouled out and Bountiful scored 33 points in the final quarter. This game was decided much earlier than that, however, as East used a powerful barrage of three-point three-point shots to take a 33-22 halftime lead. The score could have been much closer had Bountiful shown any proficiency at all on the foul line. The Braves made just two of O10 free throws during the first half. East welcomed back Matt Larsen, who had missed two previous pre-vious games, and who teamed with Jon Wright and Wilson Wang to keep the Leopard lead at least 1 0 points . With the Leopards up 37-24 in the third, Mark Wankier scored, and Wang followed with a pair of free throws to make it 41-24. The lead increased to 20 points with 1:20 to go in the quarter when Wang hit his fourth three-pointer of the game to make it 51-31. Bountiful pulled back to within 53-37 after three quarters, but East caught fire again in the fourth, taking tak-ing its biggest lead at 61-40 with 5:55 left. It was here that the Leopards began showing a lack of discipline. First, Jermaine Haliburton, their leading scorer of the year, fouled out with 5:08 to go. Bountiful ran off seven straight points, topped by - a three-point basket by Tony Smith, to make it 61-47 with 4:43 left. Troy Fuller canned a three-pointer three-pointer to make it 63-50 with 4: 10 to go, and the Braves got within '; shouting distance when Mitch Thain sank a pair of free throws to make it 63-52 with 4:05 left." : ' But East ran off the next six V points, and even some spectacular shots by Fuller and Jeff Reynolds ' in the final minutes weren't enough for the Braves. The Leopards got outstanding '. balanced scoring, as Wright had - 24, Wang 15, Larsen 12 and Wank-V': Wank-V': ier 10. Haliburton and Justin Spencer added nine apiece. Boun-V. Boun-V. tiful was paced by Thain with 28 points, Reynolds with 14 and Fuller Ful-ler off the bench with 10. East shot 54 percent from the field for the contest, one reason it captured its first region win of the year. DAVIS 58 WOODS CROSS 52 In Kaysville on Thursday night, the Darts ran into a determined Wildcat team that was within two points with 27 seconds left, before Davis iced the win from the free throw line. Woods Cross led 11-10 after one quarter, with Davis coming back to take a 25-19 halftime lead. Each time the Wildcats got close, the Darts turned to the "Bryan-Brian" combination, Emery and Olsen, respectively. re-spectively. Both had 17 points for the Darts, while center Mike Welling Well-ing added 10. As usual, Davis shot well from the. line, hitting 20 of 24 free throws. Woods Cross was paced by another outstanding performance from Mike Vanderlinden, who tallied tal-lied 23 points. Lance Evans added eight for the Wildcats. HIGHLAND 85 VIEWMONT 65 In Salt Lake City, the top-ranked r " i i M Rams looked unbeatable in the first half, missing just three shots in building a 48-33 lead en route to the win. Highland had three starters with over 20 points, as Chris Rich had 27, Kurt Christensen 23 and David Young 20. Highland remains atop the coaches and sportswriters basketball polls again this week. Viewmont was paced by Jared Blauer with 20, Paul James with 1 3 , Kelly Bland with 10 and Brian Hill-man Hill-man with eight. First half action concluded after presstime last night, with Davis visiting Viewmont, Highland at East and Bountiful going to Woods Cross. Friday night will find Highland High-land at Davis in what could be a battle for first, East coming to Woods Cross, and Bountiful traveling to Viewmont. All games start at 7:30 p.m. ' - '"V n v i jt u , . PHOTO BY ROGER TUTTLE Bountiful High's Cory Sovereen (40) battles with East High's Jon Wright (3) and Mark Wankier (1 0) for this loose ball during the Leopard's 81 -70 win Friday night. Region teams returned to action last night, and begin second half play with a full slate of games Friday at 7:30 p.m. |