6A boys basketball: No. 1 Pleasant Grove overcomes sluggish start in quarterfinal win

OGDEN — No. 1 Pleasant Grove was punched in the mouth, figuratively speaking, in the first half of Tuesday's 6A quarterfinals and didn't really have a response. Underdog Herriman's physicality caught the Vikings completely off guard.

"When we made the moves we've been making and we were getting hit harder, bumped a little bit, they were just a physical, physical brand of basketball. We've played against that before this year. I just think we were caught off guard," said coach Randy McAllister.

In the second half, however, Pleasant Grove played like the tourney favorite. It flipped a nine-point deficit into a tie game by the end of the third quarter and then obliterated Herriman in the fourth quarter for the resounding 63-42 victory at Weber State.

McAllister credited Herriman with the way his team looked in the first half — which started with turnovers on its first six offensive possessions of the game.

When it was all said and done though, after his team outscored Herriman 25-4 in the fourth quarter, McAllister simply said, "I feel a huge sigh of relief that we figured out how to attack their strategy."

The adjustments Pleasant Grove made on the defensive end is what turned the game around.

In the first half Herriman point guard Jael Vaughn gave the Vikings fits with his quickness, as he was the catalyst to his team building a 26-17 halftime lead.

A couple of minutes into the third quarter, Pleasant Grove started denying Vaughn the ball the length of the court. It led to some indecision from the rest of the team, which allowed the Vikings to get easy buckets and claw their way back to 38-38 by the end of the quarter.

"We just tried to take Vaughn out of the game as best we could, he was controlling things for them. He's so explosive," said McAllister. "We did everything we could to keep the ball out of his hands and I think that maybe slowed them down a bit."

Kael Mikkelsen got the defensive assignment on Vaughn, and he smothered him for long stretches.

Ironically enough, that helped kick-start his own offense. Mikkelsen hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at the end of the third quarter, and then he scored eight straight points to start the fourth — a personal 11-0 run that gave Pleasant Grove a 46-38 lead with 6:32 left in the game.

Mikkelsen finished the game with 23 points — 19 of which came in the second half — to go along with four rebounds and six steals.

"Kael was unbelievable tonight, second half especially. He just brought back almost single-handedly on the offensive end," said McAllister.

Any hope of a Herriman comeback was thwarted in the fourth quarter as it missed the front end of three one-and-ones and then made just 1 of 14 field goals.

Blake Freeland ended up leading Herriman with 14 points in a strong game in the highly anticipated matchup against Pleasant Grove 7-foot-4 center Matt Van Komen.

Even though Van Komen was held in check offensively, he was outstanding defensively in the second half, which contributed to Herriman's struggles.

Casey Brown chipped in with 18 points and seven rebounds for Pleasant Grove.

With the win, Pleasant Grove advances to the 6A semifinals on Friday and will face Region 1 champion Fremont at 2:30 p.m.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2T66dyT