5A boys basketball: Daw tallies double-double in East's tournament-opening win

OGDEN — Kok Daw saved his best performance of the postseason for when it mattered — in the state tournament. East head coach Mitch Smith called Daw's performance his best of the year as the Leopards overcame a slow start to defeat Viewmont 54-42 in the opening round of the 5A state tournament on Tuesday night.

Daw had his first double-double of the season, scoring 12 points and adding 12 rebounds.

"Kok Daw did an amazing freaking job. That kid was a monster today. No one wanted to go inside on him. He was Rudy Gobert. Shut them down," Smith said.

Daw added two blocks to his impressive stat line, a credit to his great defense in the opening game.

East came out flat as Viewmont led 11-5 after the opening quarter, but in the second quarter, the Leopards looked like a totally different team.

"We were sleepwalking the first (quarter). It's not about the time, it's about how you come out. Every team comes out nervous and I told the kids, 'You're going to come out nervous, but defend and rebound.' In the second quarter, because we rebounded, the three at the end was the only bucket they scored," Smith said.

In the second quarter, the Leopards held the Vikings to just 3 points, outscoring Viewmont 14-3.

"We just told ourselves that we have to take this. We're trying to make a deep playoff run and we have to play together right now, get that momentum," Daw said of the second quarter. "We put an emphasis on rebounding and just playing defense. When we start playing defense, it gets our offense going and that's what we like."

East's long and athletic defense was suffocating and key to the Leopards picking up the win. East's defense held Viewmont to just 42 points and forced 10 turnovers. The Leopards tallied three blocks and eight steals.

"That's the key, hands up and use our length," Smith said. "We are long and we're quick and we anticipated really well tonight. We played tough defense, bigs came out and dominated on the boards and inside, and then Dre (Mulibea) and Taylor (Zwick) took over. Our role players, we had two kids hit some big shots in the third quarter that gave us some separation."

“We are long and we're quick and we anticipated really well tonight. We played tough defense.”

East head coach Mitch Smith

"In practice, we emphasize help defense and getting to the ball. We also have a teammate there if we get beat off the dribble," Daw added.

Andre Mulibea led East with 15 points, Taylor Zwick scored 14 points and Daw added 12.

East will play No. 1 seed Skyridge on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

"We're trying to make a far run, and this is a good way to start it off," Daw said.

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