OGDEN—Sky View triumphed over Salem Hills in the first round of the state tournament, 67-47 Tuesday night.The Bobcats went on 12-0 run to begin, led off by junior forward Jordan Nielson on a put-back layup during the first possession of the game. Senior forward Grayson Moore and junior point guard Riley Knowles both made 3-pointers during the run.

“I thought our start was key for us,” said Sky View head coach Kevin Anderson. “We came out of the gates and hit some big threes for us and got up 12-0.”

Salem Hills did not score until senior guard Nick Obrey hit a 3-pointer three minutes into the game.

At halftime the Bobcats led by eleven, 34-23, but three Sky View players were in foul trouble; Junior center Casey Oliverson had three while Moore and Nielson both had two.

“It didn’t really hurt the team this time,” Oliverson said about the foul trouble.

Oliverson had the exclamation point dunk on a Sky View 8-3 run to begin the second half. He led all scorers with 18 points, adding six rebounds and four blocks in the game.

Still plagued by fouls, Sky View’s Nielson had to be pulled halfway through the third quarter when he picked up his fourth. Nielson finished with 14 points and five rebounds.

“Our defense had a lot of help-side,” Oliverson said. “We got a lot of blocks from help-side so I think that really helped us out a lot, stopped them from scoring.”

Sky View went on another run to start the third, 10-3, something Anderson said he is proud of his team for.

“It’s a game of runs and they’re gonna make those runs,” Anderson said. “Our inside game I thought we needed to go there a little more. We didn’t go there enough early on. I thought the second half we went there more and were able to break it open.”

Sky View’s defense held the Sky Hawks to just six points in the quarter, 46-29.

Anderson said his team needs to play good defense because sometimes they do not score as much as he would like them to.

“We have to play good defense,” Anderson said. “We were concerned about those guys, their penetration. They love to get into the lane. That was one of our keys we thought we had to have tonight was to limit their penetration.”

Oliverson helped Sky View to a 22-point lead on a breakaway dunk before the Bobcats sent in their sophomores to mop up the end of the fourth quarter to a final score of 67-47.

Sky View senior center Don Corbell had a game-high of ten rebounds as the Bobcats out-boarded Salem Hills 40-28. Knowles led all passers with seven assists.

The Bobcats will advance to the second round in the state tournament and face Lehi on Thursday March 3 at 2:15 p.m. at the Dee Events Center on the campus of Weber State University in Ogden.

“Whoever we play we play as good as we can,” Oliverson said.