It took three overtimes and a lot of foul shots to do it, but the Mountain Crest High School men’s basketball team returned to Smithfield and again defeated the Sky View Bobcats, 62-57. Sky View opened up the game on a 16-7 run that carried them through six minutes of the first quarter with relative ease, but Mountain Crest would not go away. The Mustangs went on a 7-2 run of their own at the end of the first quarter to pull within five.

That run would continue in the second quarter, spurred by the outstanding play of MCHS Sophomore Faimafili Laulu-Pututau. The 6-foot, 4-inch forward from Hyrum was Mountain Crest’s leading scorer on the night. He hit several shots on the block to extend a budding Mountain Crest lead that emerged in the second quarter of the game. He ended with a game high 18 points and 2 rebounds.

Also key in turning the game around in the second quarter for Mountain Crest was the Mustangs’ zone defense and full-court pressure.

“We didn’t want to rely too much on it,” Mountain Crest coach Graydon Buchmiller said, “but we felt like that was our best opportunity. Man for man, i don’t know who matches up with them in our league, or who matches up with them in the state, but they’re very tough and we had to do something different this time around.”

The stifling defensive effort caused more than 20 Sky View turnovers and led to several MCHS fast-break opportunties.

“You can’t play tough d and then get the ball and turn it back to them,” SVHS head coach Kevin Anderson said. “We wasted several possessions. There were just way too many turnovers. From a fan’s point of view it was a great game to come and watch. It was a great atmosphere for high school basketball. We’re just disappointed because we came out on the short end of the stick.”

Also key in this win for the Mustangs was MCHS’s focus on the Bobcat center, Casey Oliverson. In the previous outing between these two teams, Oliverson was dominant both on the glass and on the block. He led both teams in scoring and rebounding. In this game, Oliverson could not get the ball on the interior without being double or triple-teamed. The attention he received from Mountain Crest’s defense obviously threw him off his game and led to several turnovers and poor passes as well.

Despite Mountain Crest’s defense and Oliverson’s relative silence, this game stayed dead even largely in part due to the offensive tactics of the Mustangs. With three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Mountain Crest led by one and had possession of the ball, but ran more than two minutes off the clock before Sky View fouled enough times to send the Mustangs to the line. It was the only way that Sky View could regain possession with enough time to score.

“We want to make sure, especially in overtime, that we get the shot that we want,” Buchmiller said. “It can’t just be any kind of shot. It wasn’t intentional to stall, but as time keeps ticking off, we want to make sure that we have that. I think that’s huge because it puts pressure on them on defense and on offense.”

Fortunately for Sky View, MCHS’s Tyler Crosbie hit only one of his two free throws, putting SVHS down by two with 30 seconds remaining. On the ensuing play, SVHS’s Jordan Nielsen was able to penetrate on the block and score the layup to lock the game at 17 apiece.

Neither team scored in the first overtime, largely because the Mustangs spent three minutes looking for a shot and couldn’t find one. Sky View possessed the ball for a total of just over 1 minute of the first overtime period, taking two shots and missing them both.

The second overtime included much more scoring. With just less than six seconds remaining, Sky View had the ball with the score tied at 53. Grayson Moore attempted an 8-foot baseline jumper that was too long, and time expired before the rebound was recovered.

The third overtime saw a return to the tenacious and disruptive defense of Mountain Crest. Sky View either turned the ball over or was unable to score on all trips down the floor except for two fast-breaks, and Mountain Crest hit five of eight free throws down the stretch to put it just out of reach.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Anderson said. “These kids play a lot of basketball in each other’s gyms. We’re disappointed. We wanted to come in and defend our home court, and we couldn’t get it done tonight. But we’ve got to bounce back. We’ve still got four games, so we’ve got to get ready for Bonneville.”

This was the third meeting of the season between Mountain Crest and Sky View, and in each contest, the visiting team left victorious. Mountain Crest won the series between the Cache Valley rivals, two games to one.

Sky View will next take on the Bonneville Lakers on the road. That game is set for Friday the 11th at 7 p.m.