High school basketball: Murray relieved with victory over Cottonwood

MURRAY— As the Murray Spartans walked off the court after coming from behind to defeat the Cottonwood Colts in a Region 2 battle on Tuesday night, head coach Jason Workman exhaled a sigh of great relief.

"I feel great about the game now," Workman said. "But it made us do a lot more worrying than I thought we needed to."

The Spartans, who won 44-40, built a 5-point lead by the end of the first quarter, but then watched it slip away and were looking at a 7-point hole at the start of the final period.

Much of the reason for the change in momentum was the Cottonwood defense. The Colts used a zone set to try and contain Murray leading scorer David Collette, a 6-7 center averaging 16.6 points a game.

"It was just one of those ugly games. We really played right into their hands," Workman said. "I thought we got sped up a few times against that zone and they made our own players ignore our big guy."

Workman went on to say that he was "really disappointed most of the game because I felt like we didn't attack very well, we didn't play with enough confidence."

That was until the fourth quarter started.

Just 15 seconds into the period, junior Riley Grandinetti nailed a 3-pointer to regain the momentum for the Spartans. Moments later, Korbin Dooley scored for the Colts, but it would be the last time Cottonwood put any more points on the board as Murray went on an 11-0 run to finish the game.

"We've really been working on our defense," Workman said, referring to giving up just two points in the final eight minutes. "There are some things we can do because we have a big guy in the middle. We do pride ourselves on our man-to-man defense."

Collette added two buckets midway through the fourth quarter to bring the Spartans within one, then with 1:44 left, Daniel Khristensen, the big man defending Collette, picked up his fifth foul to open up the inside. Justin Escarciga converted on the two free throws to tie the score and give Murray the lead for good. Grandinetti, Mitch Tate and Escarciga each hit foul shots in the final minute put the game out of reach.

"At the end, I thought our kids were really tough," Workman said. "We got some really important loose balls and rebounds that were anybody's ball. We finished out the game tough and I think that's what won it for us."

Collette finished with 12 points, Escarciga had nine, and Cade Bullough added eight for the Spartans. Dooley and Rollin Carter each scored 12 points for the Colts.

Streaking BYU women's team is hosting Air Force