High school basketball: Prepared Bengals blast Beetdiggers

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Brighton played like a team that wanted to seize control of the Region 4 race Friday night, whereas Jordan simply did not.

The Bengals led the entire game — never by less than seven after the first quarter — on their way to a comfortable 68-52 victory at home over the Beetdiggers.

"I thought we did a good job preparing ourselves to play. We really harp on that, to make sure we are mentally ready to compete, and the kids to their credit did a really good job," said Brighton coach Lyndon Johnson.

That focus never wavered either. Whenever Jordan strung together a few quality possessions, Brighton always had an answer to increase the lead back to double-digits.

The Region 4 title is now within site for the Bengals. They are 8-2 in region and tied for first with Alta with two games remaining. The rivals square off next Friday at Alta, and then Brighton ends the regular season the following Tuesday at home against Pleasant Grove.

"It's as good a league collectively as I've ever seen," said Johnson.

On a night when Brighton shot 54 percent compared to 35 for Jordan, big man Austin Hudson did a good chunk of the damage inside scoring 18 points, with Sam Wunderli chipping in with 16.

Hudson's first six points might've been the most important. When these teams met at Jordan back on Jan. 15, the Diggers jumped out to a 22-5 first quarter on their way to a wire-to-wire 63-56 victory.

Hudson helped reverse that trend scoring six of his team's first eight points as Brighton seized an early 8-1 lead. Consecutive 3-pointers by Wunderli and Corbin Miller extended the lead to 17-7 late in the first, and early in the second quarter another 3-pointer by Derek Newell pushed the advantage to 22-11.

Defensively, Brighton was just as impressive the entire game.

It held Kevin Goldsmith to seven points, 11 under his season average, and it didn't allow a single 3-pointer, not even to Jordan sharp-shooter Joe Mero who came into the game averaging just under three 3s per game.

That defensive pressure helped Brighton open up a 46-31 lead with 3:06 remaining in the third quarter, and it looked poised to blow the game wide open. Over the next three minutes, however, Jordan showed the type of poise that had been missing most of the game and closed the quarter on a 10-4 tun to trim the lead to 50-41.

The momentum was short-lived though with Brighton scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter capitalizing on a Jordan technical foul.

"It was nice to see the team not panic with the lead and take care of business," said Johnson. "Our kids did a really good job in practice, they prepared well and they played really well."

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com