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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.
Stansbury junior drains four 3s in fourth-quarter surge ♦
The Stansbury girls basketball team isn’t off to the start it hoped for, having dropped four of five entering Tuesday’s non-region contest against Juab at Stansbury High School.
It didn’t look promising early in Tuesday’s game, either, as the visiting Wasps led 25-18 with 2:19 left in the first half, and 33-28 with 3:30 left in the third quarter. However, the Stallions turned things around in a big way over the final 11:30, as junior Ainsley Thurber scored 17 points during a 26-6 run to close the game to lead Stansbury to a 55-39 win.
Buffs unable to maintain first-quarter lead ♦
The Tooele girls basketball team did almost everything it had to do to give itself a chance in Tuesday’s non-region home game against high-scoring Green Canyon.
The Buffaloes held the Wolves to just 37 points, 13 fewer than their previous season-low and nearly 27 points below their season average. However, the Buffs’ own offense had its fair share of struggles as well, scoring just 10 points over the final three quarters of a 37-23 loss on its home floor. Tooele (2-3), which relies on a stifling defense, failed to break the 30-point barrier for the first time this season.