Sean Hales / Messenger Photo
While the Templars’ Griffin Aste and Tylan Jackson won the day against Gunnison, Nick Brown (above) stole the show with back-to-back dunks.

The Templars’ dynamic duo
By Sean Hales
2-13-08

MANTI—Manti Templars Tylan Jackson and Griffin Aste proved a deadly tandem for the Gunnison Bulldogs last Wednesday, combining for 48 points as the Templars cruised past Gunnison, 83-64.
Jackson and Aste accounted for nine of Manti’s first 13 points, and if it weren’t for Gunnison’s Kevin Nay and a 3-pointer from Taylor Newman, Manti’s lead would have been much greater than the 13-8 that it was about midway through the period.
But in the final two minutes of the quarter, the pace picked up significantly, which seemed to favor the Bulldogs as they went on a 10-2 run, led by Derrick Christensen and Cutler Frandsen, each with a 3-pointer, to end the quarter up, 18-15.
Yet Aste and Jackson proved too much for the Bulldogs to handle, and when one was well defended and without a shot, the other stepped up.
Gunnison started a double team on Aste, which Jackson exploited, finding two good looks and draining two long shots early in the second quarter.
Aste and Jackson exploded for two steals and six points late in the quarter to give the Templars a 34-28 lead, which they would not relinquish.
However, it wasn’t as though Manti’s defense was impenetrable; Gunnison continued to get good looks but could make few shots fall throughout the second half. For the game, the Bulldogs shot just 36 percent from the field, after a stellar first quarter.
And compounding that problem was Manti’s defensive rebounding, which limited Gunnison to just 13 second chances in the game.
Although it was the steady, cold-blooded attack from Jackson and Aste that won the day, two steals and two dunks on consecutive plays from Manti’s Nick Brown stole the show early in the third quarter, and seemed to suck any momentum the Bulldogs might have had.
Jackson just edged Aste for the night’s scoring leader with 25. Aste had 23 including two 3-pointers. Russ Hugentobler and Dave Hugentobler followed up with nine and eight points respectively.
For Gunnison, Nay and Christensen produced near their season averages, with 22 and 14 points respectively, but none of the other Bulldog starters even approached double figures. Frandsen, however, came off the bench and reached that mark with 13 points.
In other action last week, the Templars earned a lopsided but not unexpected victory over the North Sevier Wolves, 96-62, while Gunnison fell to South Sevier, 47-67.
On Friday night the Templars jumped out to a 14-point lead after the first quarter of play and held a 54-23 lead at the half.
Ten Manti players got into the scoring column. Tylan Jackson had 20 points while Dave Hugentobler and Griffin Aste had a dozen each. Russ Hugentobler scored 10, Nick Brown had nine and Zach Bown had eight. Three Templars, Callan Jones, Jens Howe and Tyler Clark each had seven points, and Tyler Thomas had two.
The win gave Manti a regular season record of 8-4 (15-6 overall) and a tie with San Juan for third place. A coin toss gave Manti the No. 3 seed in this Friday’s inter-region play-in games at Snow College. The Templars will take on Kanab in a game scheduled for 8 p.m.
As for Gunnison, the Bulldogs never seemed to get going last Friday and fell prey often to South Sevier’s press and trap defense. The Bulldogs limped through the first half, held to just 16 points while the Rams tallied 34.
Nay was held to a meager 12 points, while the team was led by Erick Rosenvall with 16, including two 3-pointers. Christensen recorded 12 points, nine of them from behind the arc.
Gunnison ended the regular season in a tie with North Sevier and won a coin toss to take the fifth-place seed into the play-in round of the state tournament. The Bulldogs are scheduled to face Region 14’s No. 2 team, Rowland Hall, on Friday at noon at Snow College.