TRI-STATE: Arbor View comes alive, claims Elite Division title
For about 25 minutes of the Elite Division championship game in the Tri-State Invitational, Arbor View players looked as if they were thinking about how to spend their last few days of winter break.
Silverado led 61-46 with 6:46 to play and had all the momentum. Then the Aggies woke up.
Arbor View used a stringent full-court press, and Tyre Williams and Jarrod Burks sparked a 39-13 run to close the game in an 85-74 victory at Desert Oasis on Thursday.
In the fourth quarter, Williams scored 13 of his team-high 17 points and Burks scored 10 of his 14. Comillion Smith finished with 14 points and four rebounds, and made two key steals during the Aggies’ winning surge.
“That’s the second time that’s happened to us,” Arbor View coach Dustin Clayton said. “We just woke up, and the kids see if we get after it in the full-court pressure, good things happen. We (force turnovers) and get easy buckets continuously when we get after people like that.”
The Aggies shot 8-for-32 in the first half and scored only nine second-quarter points, all on free throws.
But Arbor View finally got hot when Burks buried a 3-pointer, and Williams stole the ball from Silverado’s Trevon Martin on the next possession and drove for a layup to cut the deficit to 10.
The teams traded buckets, and again it was Williams and Burks on a scoring spree, combining for Arbor View’s next seven points to slice Silverado’s lead to 67-65.
“Tyre has such a good basketball IQ and kind of a knack for the ball to anticipate those passing lanes and different rotations off the trap,” Clayton said. “He just did a great job for us in the fourth quarter to allow that comeback. And when (Jarrod) is playing like he can, he’s as good as anybody in our league.”
Silverado’s Devin Ross led all scorers with 31 points, but fouled out with about two minutes left.
“Coach just told us to keep attacking the basket, and once we were able to foul their big man out, that helped,” Williams said.
Arbor View, which shot 15 of 30 in the second half, closed the game on a 20-7 run, hitting 13 of 14 free throws.
“I think we’ve got a lot of nice pieces on our team, and it helps us as a group, as a whole to win certain games when we come together and play as a team,” Burks said.
Caden Farley added 18 points for the Skyhawks.
Desert Oasis 59, Basic 44 — Jacob Heese scored a game-high 30 points to lead the Diamondbacks, who held off a late rally by the Wolves, to secure third place in the Platinum Division.
Manny Mitchell had 11 points, and Nate Van scored 10 for Desert Oasis.
“Four wins in a tournament is always helpful, especially to the confidence of my players as we head back into league play,” Desert Oasis coach Joseph Bedowitz said. “I challenged them in the locker room, that Basic was going to throw a haymaker from the beginning and we had to step up immediately.”
Heese did most of his damage in the first half, scoring 10 points in the first quarter, and 11 in the second quarter. The 6-foot-3-inch junior guard hit four 3-pointers and was 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
“I’m trying to push Jake into the leadership role,” Bedowitz added. “He is the emotional leader on this team. The team goes how he leads by example on the floor. His defensive effort was actually more important to our success than his offensive effort because we challenged him in the beginning.”
Heese answered the challenge, as he did a good job in shutting down Basic’s top threat during the tournament, Geoff Farie. Faries had just five points after averaging 16 points in Basic’s first four tournament games.
Cris Dominguez led the Wolves with 17 points.
Virgin Valley 57, Kingman 54 — Hogan Fowles had 19 points as the Bulldogs took third place in the Elite Division.
Devin Cox added 13 points for Virgin Valley.
Tobias Bagby and Joran Dupee scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, to lead Kingman.
Provo 64, Spring Valley 54 — The Bulldogs led wire-to-wire in dominating the Grizzlies in the Diamond Division championship game.
Braxton Bailey scored 27 points to lead Provo.
Paul Banks and Joseph Johnson each had 10 points for Spring Valley.
Coral Academy 96, Sunrise Mountain 61 — Isaiah Spears had 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists to lead the Falcons over the Miners in the Gold Division championship game.
Isaac Spears had 25 points, and Zachary Hammer scored 18 for Coral Academy.
Wooster 61, Calvary Chapel 49 — Myster Smith scored 24 points to lead the Colts over the Lions for third place in the Gold Division.
Tyler Vetter added 14 points, and Ben Ginn scored 13 for Wooster.
Calvary Chapel’s Elijah Martinez led all scorers with 30 points.