High school basketball: Springville sharpshooter expands game

SPRINGVILLE — Quietly, Springville High's Alex Mortensen is having an outstanding senior season. Actually, a season that should include his name in conversations about the state's top prep basketball players.

But even though he leads 4A in scoring at 20.3 points per game, he's remained somewhat off the radar because his personality and game kind of match. He doesn't seek the spotlight, but is grounded in good fundamentals on and off the court. He lets his effort do the talking.

"He has a work ethic like I haven't seen in a long time," Springville coach Chris Kitchen said. "And he hates to lose."

Coming into this season Mortensen was known mainly as an outside shooter. The southpaw continues to excel in that part of his game, currently ranking 11th in 3-point field goals with 34, or 1.7 per game. However, he's doing most of his damage this season by attacking the basket.

"He'll dribble penetrate on anybody and is not afraid to get knocked to the floor when he goes in there against the bigger guys," Kitchen said.

Much of Mortensen's improvement comes from his effort to become a better defender. Also, Kitchen said he became a better offensive player when he learned to try to make his teammates better offensive players.

"His whole basketball ability has improved in every way from last season," the Springville coach said.

The Red Devils have already secured their second straight playoff spot and can earn the No. 4 seed from Region 7 with a win this week over Timpview this week. Region play is where Mortensen has been at his best. Even after being held to season-low seven points by Provo last week, Mortensen's only game this season in which he hasn't scored double digits, he's still averaging 21.4 ppg in league play. Those numbers coincide with when he was asked to play some at the two spot instead of the point.

"There have been games where we've put the team on his back and said 'take us,' " Kitchen said.

He scored a season-high 30 against Payson two weeks ago, popped in 29 against the Lions early in the year, and has scored more than 25 points in five region games. He started off league play by averaging more than 27 ppg in Springville's three league-opening wins.

A few colleges, mainly at the junior college level, are giving Mortensen a look. However, with a grade-point average of 4.0, he has many post-high school options from which to choose.

"He's an outstanding student, and that's just something you don't see every day with athletes," Kitchen said.