High school basketball: Titans hit 3s to beat Bountiful

BOUNTIFUL — Despite leading most of the game, it looked as if things were slipping away from Olympus early in the fourth quarter with Bountiful finally finding its shooting touch with five straight baskets.

The Titans quickly turned to their bread and butter — the 3-pointer — to bail them out.

Coming out of a timeout, Olympus recaptured the lead by burying three 3-pointers, a lead it never relinquished with clutch foul shooting on its way to the 60-52 upset road victory.

"It's great when you see your kids succeed in a tough situation on the road," said Olympus coach Matt Barnes. "I told my guys, these are the games you work for, these are the games you live for."

Nearing the midway point of region play, Olympus knew Tuesday's game was a must win. It played with that sense of urgency all game, and now it's tied with Bountiful and Highland atop the Region 6 standings with 4-1 records..

Sam Williams knocked down the first of the decisive 3s to put Olympus back in front 41-40 after relinquishing the lead for the first time since 4-3 early in the first quarter. Bountiful continued its hot shooting with back-to-back jumpers, but Jordan Marsh had a response each time with consecutive baseline 3-pointers to put the Titans in front 47-44 with 3:50 remaining.

"We just needed to continue to execute our offense, and once we did that we got good looks and we were able to knock them down," said Williams.

The 3-pointers seemed to deflate the Braves who found themselves still trailing despite making five straight shots. They struggled the rest of the way making just 2 of 8 shots, and somehow lost a game despite forcing 14 turnovers and committing just six of their own.

Despite his fair share of turnovers, Williams was the catalyst to the victory. The senior point guard scored 20 points and knocked down three of Olympus' eight 3-pointers.

"He's a tough hard-nosed kid, he's just a guy that controls us and takes care of the ball and hits big shots for us," said Barnes. "He's hit big shots all year for us. As a coach that's a point guard you want out there."

The Titans got great contribution elsewhere including Marsh, who was recently demoted from starter to reserve. He's responded with back-to-back big games, including 11 points against Bountiful.

"You've got to get Jordan Marsh a lot of credit. He had been starting for me for 10 or 11 games, was one of my better JV games last year, but he's really been struggling this year," said Barnes. "I took him out of the starting line-up and he's taken his knew role and run with it."

Bountiful was led by Nick Williams' 14 points, but leading scorer McKay LaSalle was plagued by foul trouble all night and only finished with 10 points.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com