Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
CEDAR CITY — In the final game of the 2A basketball season, the third-seeded Enterprise Wolves tackled the fifth-seeded North Summit Braves 61-46.
The Wolves' last trip to the championship ended in a 1-point defeat, and the team refused to let the same thing happen again.
The first quarter promised an exciting match as Treyson Whitman did the bulk of the work for Enterprise with his 6 points; three other Wolves players scored 2 points each. Meanwhile, only three Braves scored in the quarter. Between Buck Sargent, Trevor Richins and Jake Smith, the Braves picked up 14 points and held the Wolves to 12.
With a fresh quarter, the teams seemed to forget how to score. The two had a combined 8 points before entering a drought, and it wasn't broken until late in the half when Enterprise's Treysen Randall made it rain. He hit two 3-pointers in the final minutes and put his team up 25-21 at the break.
The Wolves held North Summit to just 7 points, making it their lowest-scoring quarter of the game.
The second half was a different story.
Though the Braves started the scoring with a shot from downtown by Steele Vernon, their success didn't last long. Enterprise responded by going on a 7-0 run that appeared to kill the Braves' confidence.
Point guard Brady Crouch, who by no means had struggled up to that point, had his best period of play with 6 points while guiding the Enterprise offense. The Braves fell into trouble when it came to getting shots to connect, and even struggled at the free-throw line where they missed 40% of their attempts. The 21-point quarter for Enterprise started to put the game away.
Down 46-33 with a mountain to climb, North Summit got aggressive in the final frame. The Braves scored the first 5 points of the fourth quarter, including an and-one play by Richins, while holding the Wolves to two scoreless minutes.
The aggression came back to bite, however, as Vernon fouled out early in the quarter when he sent Crouch to the line for Enterprise's first point.
It was a particularly good quarter for players wearing the No. 12, as Enterprise's Dax Hunt and North Summit's Trevor Richins each scored 7 points. The rest of the game was relatively even, but with the Wolves' insurmountable lead, it didn't matter.
What Enterprise fans weren't at the game will welcome their boys back with their new piece of hardware.
