Cheyenne tops Desert Pines in Sunset opener

Kavon Williams has certainly had bigger scoring nights than he did on Tuesday.

But it was the senior guard’s all-around performance that left his coach smiling.

Williams had nine points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals to lead Cheyenne’s boys basketball team to a 61-49 road win over Desert Pines in the Sunset League opener for both teams.

“He’s our leader, he’s our captain, he’s our most seasoned player,” Cheyenne coach Teral Fair said. “And that’s what we’re asking him to do is round out his game. The last couple seasons he’s been primarily a scorer for us, but now we’re asking him to do other things to help lead the team by example. That’s what he’s called to do this year.”

Williams had five points and three assists in the fourth quarter. He had a pair of assists to Damion Bonty in the final two minutes to help the Desert Shields (7-6, 1-0) pull away.

Bonty led Cheyenne with 15 points. Sophomore guard Ke’Shawn Hall and freshman Glen Taylor each added 11 points for the balanced Desert Shields, who avenged a 69-46 loss to Desert Pines (7-7, 0-1) in last season’s Class 3A state title game.

“It’s league play, probably one of our toughest opponents without question,” Fair said. “It’s always good to start off league play, start off with a big win against someone we’re going to be competing with for the league title at the end of the season.”

Cheyenne showed good patience against the Jaguars’ 2-3 zone, working for good shots rather than taking the first open opportunity.

“We did some things tonight that we hadn’t done all season,” Fair said. “We passed the ball, we shared the ball extremely well tonight. We’ve been really focusing on being unselfish on offense and defense. We took probably our season high in charges, as well.”

Darius Mitchell and Hasani Pullens each had nine points to lead Desert Pines.

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow @DamonSeiters on Twitter.