Logan hangs on to defeat Box Elder 60-55

<strong>LOGAN -</strong> Logan came out on top at home in a close match against rival Box Elder Friday night, 60-55. Box Elder opened up strong, keeping the Grizzlies to null for three minutes. While the Grizzlies struggled offensively, not connecting behind the three-point line, defensively they played strong.

Key Box Elder player, Shad Watson, had six of the Bees’ 12, while Logan trailed by four going into the second. The superior Logan defense held Watson to 12 all night.

The second quarter proved to be a different game offensively for Logan, while defensively they only improved, shutting down Watson completely.

“Credit to our teammates who guarded him,” Junior Taylor Compton said of Watson. “He’s an incredible player. He drops points like anyone else can in the state and we are just grateful that he didn’t go off on us tonight. And that’s a credit to our guys that guarded him tonight.”

Compton led the Grizzlies on both sides of the ball in the second, scoring nine of Logan’s 18. The scrappy junior also had a close-to-flawless quarter defensively as well.

“I just knew I had to get our team going a little bit,” Compton said. “We were a little dead there in the first half. They had a lead on us and our team just picked it up and some shots fell for me.”

Compton finished out the night with 14 points.

Going into half the Grizzlies had taken the lead 28-21. Logan came out just as they had in the second: on fire, putting up 12 points before the clock hit four minutes. The Bees couldn’t stop the momentum and, once again, Logan shut down Watson. All night Logan shined defensively. Senior Luke Falk had the majority share of rebounds for the Grizzlies.

“I felt like we rebounded the ball very well,” Logan head coach Logan Brown said. “Luke Falk, that’s as good as I’ve seen him rebound the basketball. They weren’t easy rebounds but he went up and got a few.” Faulk finished the game with nine baskets.

Going into the fourth, the Bees were trailing by seven, and didn’t put on the heat until the two minute warning as they started to close the deficit to a nail biting fourth quarter. The momentum was on the Bees side until Compton managed to save a ball from going out of bounds that resulted in a six point lead for the Grizzlies, followed by Senior Dallin Dahl’s layup and free throw to contain the momentum.

Dickson, Faulk and Tyler Brimhall all went to the free throw line with seconds left. Dickson going one for two, while Faulk and Brimhall sank both.

With one second left of play, Freshman Jarom Mecham sank a three for the Bees (his third straight three-pointer in the fourth). But it wasn’t enough for the Bees, trailing by five. Logan held the ball until the final buzzer rang.

Logan hosts Bonneville on Wednesday, Feb. 20 for the last of region play.

“We have capabilities of going into the state tournament if we finish our regular season the way we could finish with a lot of momentum,” Coach Brown said. “That’s a good thing to have going into post-season. But the biggest thing is we’ve got to take care of Wednesday first. We take care of that, then we can start looking towards the next step.”

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!