TRI-STATE: Basic opens tourney with two wins

Basic struggled with a short-handed roster the week before Christmas in the Foothill Holiday Classic, where the Wolves were missing three key players. Basic was 1-3 in the event, andtwo of the losses came against Chaparral and Rancho — teams Basic had beaten earlier in the season.

Apparently, the Wolves have matured since then, as they’re still missing key components to their roster, but held off Provo (Utah) 63-59 to go 2-0 on the first day of the Tri-State Holiday Invitational at Desert Oasis on Tuesday.

Geoff Faries led Basic with 20 points, including a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. B.J. Wilson scored 14 and Cris Dominguez 12 for the Wolves.

“All these tournaments, and all preseason games are for one reason, and that’s to get us ready for conference play, get us ready for playoff basketball,” Basic coach Leonard Taylor said. “The first tournament instead of guys stepping up into those key spots, we struggled and made excuses of other guys not being there.

“This tournament, same guys not here, but yet fought. We had guys come off the bench and play valuable minutes for us and give us big energy off the bench.”

Trailing 49-42 with time running out in the third quarter, Provo’s Maddux Wright drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and completed a four-point play to cut Basic’s lead to three. Braxton Bailey, who finished with 28 for the Bulldogs, hit a clutch 3 with less than a minute remaining, and moments later it was Kache Koop slashing down the left side of the lane to tie the game at 59.

But Faries buried two free throws with 15 seconds left, and Wilson followed with two more from the charity stripe to ice the game.

“Our go-tos like Geoff, they did what they do,” Taylor said. “He hit some key shots for us both games and led us to victory. Geoff’s been there for us all year.”

Earlier, Basic defeated Virgin Valley, 54-43, as Dominguez led all scorers with 20 points. Faries added 15 points for the Wolves. Basic opened a 12-point lead at halftime, but just as it did in its second game, allowed the Bulldogs back into the game.

Virgin Valley outscored the Wolves 18-10 in the third quarter, slicing their lead to 44-40. Basic shut the Bulldogs down though, outscoring them 10-3 in the final period to pull away. Hogan Fowles and Jayden Perkins each scored eight to lead Virgin Valley.

“We have a lot of younger guys, so this has been a learning experience,” Faries said. “Earlier games, (this season) all the games were close. Losing games like that, you start to learn what not to do, or when to hold the ball and get the foul and hit our free throws. To come out 2-0 after a couple of tough games feels good. It gives us a lot of momentum going into tomorrow.”

Mountain View (Utah) 66, Arbor View 63 — Kedrick Clayton led a furious comeback for the Bruins, scoring seven points during a game-ending 11-3 run to top the Aggies. After squandering a 15-point lead, Arbor View opened the fourth quarter on an 11-5 run and moved ahead 60-55 with 2:34 left in the game before Clayton took over.

Clayton, Todd Goodman, and Keliano Wesley each scored 15 to lead Mountain View.

Comillion Smith had 14 points, and Markell Wills scored 12 to lead Arbor View.

Arbor View 81, Spring Valley 69 — The Aggies opened a 35-28 lead at halftime and coasted to an opening-round win over the Grizzlies.

Spring Valley 76, Calvary Chapel 40 — Ryan Frazier led four Grizzlies in double figures with 19 points as they topped the Lions.

Joseph Johnson and Demetrius McWhorter each had 15 points for spring Valley, and K.C. Moore scored 12.

Elijah Martinez led Calvary Chapel with 26 points.

Mountain View (Utah) 73, Calvary Chapel 61 — Martinez led all scorers with 32 points in the loss.

Dawson Thomas added 12 points for the Lions.

Mountain View had four players score in double figures, led by Richard Stafford’s 21 points.

Virgin Valley 64, Wooster 32 — Perkins led the Bulldogs in their second game, scoring 24 points, as they led wire-to-wire.

All 10 players who saw action scored for Virgin Valley.

Ben Ginn and Tyler Vetter each scored nine to lead the Colts.

Desert Oasis 69, Sunrise Mountain 34 — The Diamondbacks scored 22 points in each of the first two quarters to set the tone, and cruised to an opening-round win.

Jacob Heese led four Desert Oasis players in double figures with 14 points. Nate Van added 13 points, and Taiga Miyano and Manny Mitchell each scored 10.

Steven Adeyemi scored 17 points to pace the Miners.

Desert Oasis 62, Lowry 46 — Heese led all scorers with 23 points as the Diamondbacks defeated the Buckaroos.

Miyano had 14 points, and Van scored 11 for Desert Oasis.

Joe Taylor had 12 points and Jed Teichert 11 for Lowry.

Kingman 68, Sunrise Mountain 57 — Adeyemi had 17 points and Damani Wilks scored 11 for the Miners in the loss.

Kingman’s Anthony Pinto led all scorers with 28 points.

Cibola (Ariz.) 68, Coral Academy 61 — The Cougars used a 26-16 second quarter to distance themselves from the Falcons.

Isaiah Spears had 21 points for Coral Academy, and teammate Ryan Djino scored 16.

C.J. Atherton’s 13 points led Cibola.

Hurricane (Utah) 50, Silverado 36 — the Skyhawks got 14 points from Devin Ross and 12 from Marcus Strawberry in the loss.

Josh Parker led Hurricane with 13 points.

Silverado 62, Cibola (Ariz.) 36 — Caden Farley drained four 3-pointers en route to a 21-point performance to lead the Skyhawks over the Cougars.