High school boys basketball: Bear River Bears bounce back, beat Stansbury Stallions 61-56

STANSBURY PARK — The Stansbury Stallions hosted the Bear River Bears on Friday night. The game turned out to be an old-fashioned fist fight.

Hard fouls and physical play were the themes of Friday’s Region 11 showdown, and after all figurative — and even a few literal — punches were thrown, the Bears were able to capture the win, 61-56.

Wade “Bubba” Miller scored 20 points, and Garrett Fronk added 13 for Bear River. Stone Tia scored 17 points for Stansbury.

“It wasn’t pretty by any means,” said Miller. “But we just kept fighting. It was fun.”

The Bears took a 17-14 lead into the second quarter, and Miller scored 10 of his 20 points in the period. That's when things started getting a little chippy. After a few hard fouls, and lots of physical play, Bear River’s Kyle Zundel connected on an elbow to the head of Stansbury’s Ryan Robbins. He got back up and made both free throws after an intentional foul was called.

Just 36 seconds later, Miller got into the mix, picking up his third foul, and getting a technical, sending him to the bench for the rest of the half.

Through all the physical play, the Stallions were able to snag a four point lead, 32-28, heading to the locker room.

“It’s kind of nice to play Stansbury,” said Miller. “You know that when they get hit, they’ll hit back. I think that it’s always nice to play a physical team like this.”

The Stallions were able to keep a slim 44-43 lead heading into the fourth quarter after a huge period from Tia, who scored 10 points. This game was shaping up to be a nail-biter in the fourth, but Bear River would seal things up in the final period.

Garrett Fronk sunk key free throws down the stretch, and Nick Hillis was able to convert on multiple second-chance opportunities to seal the deal for Bear River, as the Bears went on to get a bounce-back win after losing a tough game Wednesday against Morgan.

“We definitely needed this, especially coming off that tough loss,” said Miller. “Maybe we didn’t play as good as we wanted to tonight, but we’ve got things to fix, and we’ll continue to fix them as the season goes on.”

The Bears moved to 11-4 on the year, and will host Tooele next Wednesday. The Stallions drop to 5-10, and will travel to Ben Lomond next Wednesday.

CJ Pronk is a Deseret Digital Media intern and a senior at Stansbury High School. Follow CJ on Twitter @BigCeeJ3113