Buffs blow out Hurricane; Reds stop Stallions ♦
It had been nearly three weeks since the Grantsville boys basketball team had played a game, with a COVID-19 outbreak causing the cancellation of four games ahead of the regularly scheduled Christmas break.
Tooele’s layoff wasn’t quite as bad, with the Buffaloes having not played a game with their full varsity roster intact in 10 days thanks to a COVID outbreak that sent 10 of their players into quarantine just before the holiday. Still, both the Cowboys and Buffs could have come in to Monday’s opening games of the Steve Hodson Cancer Classic in Cedar City with a bit of rust to shake off.
Tooele missing 10 because of COVID-19 ♦
When the news came down late Monday night that 10 Tooele boys basketball players would be unavailable for Tuesday’s road game against Morgan because of COVID-19 exposure protocols, Tooele coach Jed Thomas had to scramble.
That meant calling large chunks of the junior varsity, sophomore and freshman squads up to the varsity level. Because there weren’t enough varsity jerseys to go around, it even meant finding junior-varsity jerseys for the remaining varsity players to wear, because the varsity road jerseys are purple and the JV team wears black.
With a new-look team that hadn’t had so much as a single practice together, it came as no surprise that the Buffs struggled early in a 76-63 loss to the Trojans, falling behind 20-4 in the opening minutes. However, they bounced back and trailed by just four points in the third quarter, putting a scare into an experienced Morgan team.
Grizzlies pull away from Buffs in second half ♦
Mistakes are hard for any team to overcome, particularly when the opponent doesn’t make many mistakes of its own.
Tooele’s boys basketball team learned that lesson the hard way Tuesday night, committing 24 turnovers to Logan’s eight in a 65-47 loss to the Grizzlies at Tooele High School. The Buffaloes (1-2) had 10 second-half turnovers to Logan’s four as the Grizzlies (4-1) outscored THS 28-17 after halftime, including 10-3 in the fourth quarter.
Tooele trailed by just two points late in the first half, thanks to a breakaway dunk by Justin Rogers that led to an and-one, as well as another Rogers free throw and a basket by Brock Beer that closed the Buffs’ gap to 28-26. After a Logan timeout, the Grizzlies got a 3-pointer from Isaac Tuft to spark a surge of their own, finishing the half with a 37-30 lead.