Tyler Daniels rises above the Uintah defense to take a shot.

North Sanpete boys exit tourney early after narrow loss to Uintah
2-20-08

MT. PLEASANT—Like the girls the night before, the boys basketball team at North Sanpete dropped its first-round playoff game and will be forced to watch the championships from the sidelines.
Only this time, the Hawks were the favored team, and the loss happened on their own court at the hands of the Uintah Utes, 63-60.
North Sanpete’s Tyler Daniels put in 16 points for the game, and Karl Bailey and Carson Jorgensen added 14 and 10 points respectively, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the Utes’ Lance Hansen’s 24 points, and Derek Bunderson’s 16 to lead Uintah to the win.
Problems were exacerbated for North Sanpete when its top scorer and rebounder went down in the first quarter after re-injuring the knee that he first hurt three weeks ago. Without its big man in the middle North Sanpete was in trouble. Sure enough, the Hawks went down 9-2 in the next couple minutes. North Sanpete refused to quit and came back to tie the score at 9 before Uintah finished the quarter up 12-9.
In the second quarter North Sanpete actually took the lead for a short time, but Uintah stormed away with 12 straight points before the Hawks stopped the bleeding. When the half ended, North Sanpete had climbed back to within five points, 25-20.
Uintah again gained a huge lead in the third quarter, when Derek Bunderson hit three of the Utes’ four three-point shots in the first three minutes, and before North Sanpete could get a time out, Uintah held a 41-28 lead. The visitors ended the quarter up 46-35.
Showing a lot of heart, North Sanpete again battled back, led by five straight points from Karl Bailey. With the Hawks down by just five, Creed Ebell hit a three, and a couple of minutes later, Shawn Seely hit one of his own, and the Hawks were within one at 59-58.
The last minute became a test of free-throw shooting, and this has been North Sanpete’s Achilles’ heel all season long. In this most important game of the year, the Hawks could only manage to hit 13 of their 25 attempts, which clinched the win for the Utes.