Friday night boys hoops observations
They don’t call them the Highland Hecklers for nothing. I had the pleasure of covering the Judge at Highland preseason game Friday night, and though the action on the court was often below average, the heckling between student sections was awesome. Judge’s student section needs to come up with some sort of clever nickname worthy of its performance from the stands. The banter back and forth was playful and offensive all at the same time, and another reason high school basketball is so great.
On the court, Highland eked out the 36-34 victory. For Judge, it probably feels a bit snake bit this year with a 1-3 record. The combined difference in those four games is five total points.
Here are some other observations from Friday night’s slate of boys basketball games:
OK, how good is Brighton, seriously? The Bengals beat Northridge 81-37 Friday. I know we’re not talking about Fremont or Davis, but Northridge is a 5A team. Brighton had 14 different players score and is now 3-0 this season. Its other victories were a 20-point thrashing of Fremont and a 15-point win over West Jordan. Not week will reveal a lot about Brighton as it plays Riverton and Bingham.
It must’ve been an exciting night in Brigham City as the Fremont at Box Elder game went into overtime, with the Silver Wolves prevailing 61-57. The ‘Wolves are still without injured football player Tate Lewis, but they’re still managing to win their fair share of games and the depth should help come region play.
Kearns’ valiant effort to remain unbeaten and overcome a 20-point deficit came up just short in a 58-55 loss to Murray at the Jordan High Holiday Tournament. Murray will face Jordan in the championship game of the tournament after the ‘Diggers beat Juan Diego 66-62 in overtime.
Guess who the only undefeated team remaining in Region 6 is? Here’s a hint, it’s not Bountiful, Olympus, Woods Cross or Highland. If you guess East, you’re right. In fairness, the Leopards haven’t played anyone great, but Friday’s 69-66 win over Orem is respectable for sure. The schedule gets much tougher for East next week with games against Murray ant West.
Tyrell Corbin continues to impress. Friday night the senior hit the game-winner as time expired to lift West to a 58-56 win over Layton.
Richfield is a tough team to figure out. The Wildcats lost to Desert Hills by 36 points in the season-opener, but Friday night they beat undefeated Hurricane 52-45. It’s an early indicator that Desert Hills is the team to beat in Region 9 this year.
Is there a harder team to figure out than Viewmont? On Tuesday the Vikings lost at Riverton, on Wednesday they beat No. 1 Lone Peak and then on Friday they lost at Bountiful 48-44. For the Braves, it was a great bounce-back win after losing to American Fork on Friday.
It’s been a tough week for the defending 4A state champs. Earlier this week it lost to Cottonwood and then on Friday night it lost to Wasatch 43-39.
It’s not often two teams scored 80 points in a high school basketball game. It happened Friday night though as West Jordan beat visiting Skyline 87-80. Jordan Loveridge led the way with 39 points.
Lastly, on Friday night in girls basketball action Manila beat West Ridge 70-0. I still don’t know what to think of this final score. What do you think?
What happened at your game on Friday night?