Lehi Sports
Falcon boys outlast Cavemen in home-court thriller
The Skyridge High School boys basketball team dropped a close final preseason game before getting off to a rough start in rugged Region 3. The Falcons lost their first four games, one by a single point and two others by seven points each, before breaking through against American Fork at home on Friday (Jan. 24).
Note that the Westlake loss of Jan. 10 was covered in a separate article. See the Jan. 16 issue of the Lehi Free Press.
Jan. 7: Layton 70, Skyridge 66
The Lancers held a five-point advantage at the half but extended it to 12 points entering the final stanza. The Falcons staged a furious rally and reduced the deficit by eight points but ran out of time to get over the hump.
Senior forward Jordan Kohler led the attack with 21 points plus nine rebounds and a block. Senior point guard Joel Gardner added 14 points including three triples. Senior forward Josh Johnson had a perfect shooting night, netting nine points with four boards in just seven minutes.
Junior forward Ryder Gentry also had nine points while junior guard Zach Gagon had six points with four steals and three deflections. Junior guard Hunter Sheffield had a nice overall field game with four points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals, three deflections and no turnovers.
“I was proud of our kids and their fight,” said Coach Jeff Gardner. “Layton is a really good team and they played really well in the middle quarters. I liked our start and I like the way we finished the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, we came up a possession short.
“Josh did a great job for us off the bench, coming in and providing offense and Jordan continues to play great basketball with another near double-double. He is scoring and rebounding at a high level right now.
“Hunter had a really nice defensive game and Ryder made some big second-half plays for us,” the coach continued. “Joel hit three 3s for us and did some nice things in the open floor and Koa Wallwork came in and gave us good minutes off the bench at the point.”
Jan. 14: Lone Peak 61, Skyridge 60
The Falcons trailed by just three after the first quarter at home against the Knights, but the offense got hot in the second period as they scorched the nets for 30 points and took a 43-29 advantage into the break.
However, Lone Peak increased effort at both ends of the floor in the second half and came all the way back to pull off a stunning win.
Junior forward Carson Mosteller sank five shots from long distance for 15 points to spark Skyridge and also had four boards. Joel Gardner had three triples and he and Kohler tallied 12 points each. Kohler had six rebounds and Gardner made three assists.
Gentry had eight points with five boards and Gagon added eight points with four rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Jan. 17: Lehi 69, Skyridge 62
The Falcons had a big fourth quarter but otherwise struggled to score on the road against the Pioneers. They trailed 28-44 at the half and couldn’t find enough after the break to overcome that margin.
Kohler tallied 29 points with eight boards, a block and three deflections. Mosteller had a great shooting night, going 7-of-9 (78%) overall including four triples for 18 points. Gentry added six points with three rebounds and three assists while Sheffield collected four boards and made four deflections.
Jan. 21: Pleasant Grove 65, Skyridge 47
On the road again, the Falcons trailed by 10 at the break but pulled within six by the end of the third quarter. The Vikings put together a 24-8 fourth-period push to make what had been a closer game look like a runaway.
Kohler led the way with 14 points and 14 rebounds in another solid performance. Gentry had a good floor outing with seven boards, two assists, two steals and four deflections and Mosteller netted nine points.
Jan. 24: Skyridge 60, American Fork 56
With each squad missing a key starter, the Falcons took the floor with determination against the Cavemen in this final clash of the region first round. After the teams dueled to a 9-9 tie at the halfway point of the first quarter, Skyridge mounted a 9-5 run to finish the period up by four.
The sizzling shooting continued in the second quarter as Sheffield got a roar from the big crowd with a nice triple and senior center Creighton Pennock punctuated the run with a rebound and putback basket to push the Falcons ahead 31-18 at the break.
The home team was still in front by 12 at 48-36 entering the final period but the Cavemen weren’t quite done yet. Playing a frenetic pace, they got the margin down to just five points with four minutes remaining and reduced it to one with 2:18 to play.
Skyridge managed the clock well down the stretch. Gagon got the ball inside to Kohler for a deuce. Wallwork snagged a defensive board and fed it to Sheffield for another long bomb. American Fork answered that score, but the Cavemen were still trailing by three with 32 seconds left.
In a playoff-type atmosphere, the Falcons broke the full-court press and the visitors were forced to foul to try to slow the clock. Kohler hit a free throw with under 10 seconds left and Wallwork got the final defensive board to cement the win for the home squad and touch off an enthusiastic celebration.
Kohler finished with a double-double of 22 points and 11 boards. Sheffield hit 5-of-7 (71%) from long distance and posted 19 points.
Gentry added six points with four rebounds and three assists while Gagon contributed six assists and freshman guard Koa Wallwork had four boards, four assists and two steals.
As a team, Skyridge converted 68 percent of attempts from close range and 58 percent from distance for an effective field-goal percentage of 74. The Falcons also outrebounded American Fork 23-14.
“I’m super proud of my team,” said Coach Gardner. “I’ve got to give American Fork credit, they mixed up defenses on us and kept us guessing but we gritted it out and got a couple of baskets when we really needed them.
“Koa did a great job as a freshman in that atmosphere and Sheffield’s threes gave us a big lift,” he went on. “We got our usual reliable game from Jordan against tough competition. Zach’s defense against Mella was also a key to this win.
“We were in a similar situation against Lone Peak with a big lead at the half, but we lost that one,” Gardner said. “We were able to stand up to the pressure tonight without our starting point guard and that was very impressive.”
The second round of Region 3 play begins with Skyridge (1-4, 10-8) hosting Westlake (4-1, 13-5) on Friday (Jan. 31) and visiting Lone Peak (3-2, 10-7) on Tuesday (Feb. 4) before welcoming Lehi (3-2, 11-6) on Feb. 7. The girls are scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m. with the boys game immediately following.
