High school basketball: Battle of the bigs goes to Pleasant Grove's Hamson

SPANISH FORK — The Pleasant Grove Vikings took a trip to the south to take on Spanish Fork in an effort to improve their preseason record and came away with a 46-40 victory over the Dons.

But not only did Pleasant Grove take the victory and improve its record to 2-1 this year, the Vikings did a couple of other things along the way that made the game all the more important to head coach Glenn Larson and his team.

First, 6-foot-6 center and BYU-signee Jennifer Hamson had a chance to battle against another big in the middle. Spanish Fork's Erin Redd has some moves of her own and gave Hamson all she could handle on the defensive end, landing the Vikings in early foul trouble — which wasn't all bad, according to Larson.

"I was pleased with how we played in the second quarter without Jenn. After she picked up two fouls in the first quarter, I decided that as long as the game was close, we wouldn't risk her getting her third foul," he noted, adding that he's happy to give his team extended minutes without their star on the court in preparation for Region 4 action, when she might not always be available.

Though Hamson finished with 18 points and was fairly dominant when in the game, her team did plenty without her to establish itself as a solid unit with or without the star on the floor.

The Vikings led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter and finished the first half with a 23-22 advantage despite Hamson's sitting on the bench throughout the second period. And Pleasant Grove had a real shot to grab a nice little cushion during that time if only it could have knocked down a few freebies.

"Don't talk to me about free throws," said Larson with a sigh.

His team was only 6-of-15 in the first half while watching the Dons go 10-of-13 during the same stretch. They did pick things back up in the second half, going 6-of-8 from the line during crunch time.

The two teams played even ball again through the third period, with the Vikings coming away with a 34-32 advantage. But Hamson took over at the start of the fourth, finally giving the Vikings the cushion they were looking for at 40-33.

Hamson's 18 points might have been a game-high scoring total, but it was teammate guard MacKenzie Larson who took over everywhere else on the court as she finished with 12 rebounds and seven assists in addition to her five points.

"Every player needs to play defense, and every player needs to rebound. We're starting to think a little better out there," said Glenn Larson, who was very happy with MacKenzie Larson's play.

Redd finished with 11 points for Spanish Fork, but it was teammate Brynlie Nielsen who had a team-high 13.

Kourtney Dinehart knocked down a pair of treys for Pleasant Grove and was the only player to put one into the net from behind the arc for either team.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com