Region 10 boys basketball: Snow Canyon rolls, Dixie edges Desert Hills, Cedar wins on road

Snow Canyon hosts Hurricane in a Region 10 boys high school basketball game, St. George, Utah, Jan. 28, 2022 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Snow Canyon, the No. 1 team in Region 10 boys basketball, continued its domination Friday night, while two other teams kept chase.

The Warriors used smothering defense to comfortably win at home, Cedar continued to play well in a road win and Dixie held on to win a low-scoring game at home.

Following are recaps of Friday’s games:

Snow Canyon 47, Hurricane 27

For the second night in a row, a basketball team from Snow Canyon used stifling defense to convincingly beat a team from Hurricane.

After the Snow Canyon girls won in Hurricane Thursday night, 56-36, the boys followed suit with a 20-point victory keyed by active play on the defensive end.

“These guys are figuring out what they can hang their hat on, and that’s being able to get stops,” Snow Canyon coach Doug Meacham told St. George News. “We were focused and did a good job that way.”

Snow Canyon hosts Hurricane in a Region 10 boys high school basketball game, St. George, Utah, Jan. 28, 2022 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News

The Warriors jumped ahead 8-3 after Bowen Hammer battled for a bucket and Owen Mackay ran the floor for a finger-roll and-1 for a 3-point play.

Then Hammer dunked after a turnover and later sank a 3-pointer as Snow Canyon took a 17-5 lead after the first quarter.

The pace slowed down dramatically in the second frame as Hurricane recovered. The Tigers got buckets from four different players – and a 3-pointer from Roger Lichfield – to cut the Warriors lead to 26-16 at halftime.

After that it was all Warriors as Snow Canyon held the Tigers to one point over the course of the next 10 minutes, 25 seconds of the contest.

Hurricane scored one point in the third quarter and 10 points in the final frame under withering pressure from the Warriors.

Big man Lyman Simmons led the home team with 14 points while Hammer had 11 and Mackay scored 10 for the winners.

Next on the list was Walker Morrison, who sank a 3-pointer in the first and fourth quarters to finish with six for Snow Canyon.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound senior would play a lot more minutes on any other team in Region 10.

“He’s a selfless leader,” Meacham said. “To me he’s a starter that comes in and gives us that spark.”

Hurricane was led in the defeat by Weston Larsen’s seven points. Lichfield scored five for the Tigers and Kruz Gardner and Nathan Parker chipped in four points apiece.

Dixie 39, Desert Hills 38

The Dixie Flyers took a one-point advantage at the end of the third, 27-26, then held on to survive a Thunder attack in the final frame to post the home victory.

Desert Hills at Dixie, Region 10 boys basketball, St. George, Utah, Jan. 28, 2022 | Photo by Jacqui Knighton, St. George News / Cedar City News

Desert Hills got 3-pointers from three different players – Landon Esplin, Jake Wilkins and Lincoln Holmes – to challenge Dixie during the final quarter. Eric Olsen also sank a bucket.

But Dixie clung to the win behind Kyle Lemke, who scored seven of his 11 total points in the fourth quarter.

Cam Dyer sank a critical 3-pointer in the fourth for Dixie and Jordan Roberts led the Flyers with 12 points in the win.

Meanwhile, Esplin threw in 10 points to pace the Thunder. Eli Allred scored seven and a trio of players – Olsen, Holmes and Awsten Turnbow – each scored six points in the loss.

Cedar 70, Pine View 62

At Pine View, the Cedar Reds battled the Panthers evenly during the first half, after which they pulled away in the second half for their third straight region win.

Cedar at Pine View, Region 10 boys basketball, St. George, Utah, Jan. 28, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Eric Fieldsted, St. George News / Cedar City News

Pine View led 34-33 at halftime, but the Reds outscored the Panthers 24-14 during the third quarter to go up nine, then held on down the stretch for the victory.

“Any road win in our region is big. It was a great win for us against a well-coached team,” said Cedar head coach Mark Esplin. “We made a few adjustments at halftime and the kids came out and executed them.”

Zab Satana led all scorers with 32 points for Cedar, while Aaron Munson added 12 and Stiockton Albrecht made 11.

The Panthers were led by Nash Schroeder’s 20 points, with Bensen Shepherd adding 13 and Griffen Shepherd contributing nine.

— written by Jeff Richards

Region 10 boys basketball standings (as of Jan. 29)

  1. Snow Canyon, 7-1 (17-1).
  2. Dixie, 5-2 (13-4).
  3. Crimson Cliffs, 5-2 (11-5).
  4. Cedar, 4-4 (9-8).
  5. Hurricane, 3-5 (10-8).
  6. Pine View, 2-6 (7-10).
  7. Desert Hills, 1-7 (8-12).

Next Wednesday’s games

  • Dixie at Cedar, 7 p.m.
  • Crimson Cliffs at Hurricane, 7 p.m.
  • Desert Hills at Snow Canyon, 7 p.m.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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