Wasatch Guts Through Another Tough Loss

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Wasps stay close and mount a furious comeback, but fall short

to Morgan 64-62

BY KENNY BRISTOW

Wave Sports Writer

The losing of close games will eventually end.  The boys are playing too hard for it not to.  One of these nights the game will end with the black and gold in the lead.  The players on the court will jubilantly leap into each other’s arms.  The bench will erupt with excitement and Wasp fans will cheer as though it were the championship years Wasatch experienced as recently as 2011.  But for now… Wasatch will be forced to gut through its second straight heartbreaking home loss in less than a week. 

Wednesday night, the Morgan High School Trojans traveled to The Nest in Heber City and barely escaped with a 64-62 win.  It was a close game throughout, yet Wasatch, as they have most of the season, played from behind.  They briefly held small leads during the physical contest, but would quickly fall back down, sometimes five or six points.  Not insurmountable by any means, but still it is an exhausting way to play a basketball game.

The two teams basically traded two point baskets through the first quarter and a half.  Wasp guard Jackson Gordon showed the hot hand early for Wasatch draining his first of three, three pointers in the first quarter putting the Wasps up 9-6.  But the advantage was brief as the Trojans scored three unanswered buckets just before the 1^st period buzzer.

Morgan took advantage of the cold-shooting Wasps in the second quarter, outscoring Wasatch 14-9 as the home team suddenly found it difficult to score.  It was a physical 10 minutes and it seemed to drain the Wasps as they went into the locker room down at the half 20-26.

Head Coach Lonnie Magnusson, heading in to speak to his troops only said, “We’re fine… but we have to eliminate the mistakes.”  He was obviously referring to the careless turnovers Wasatch committed in the second period and their inability to get points from offensive rebounds.

Whatever he said to his boys seemed to hit home because the Wasps came out focused.  They went back to a more patient style on offense and worked harder on defense.  Even though they remained behind, by as much as nine points at the midway mark of the third quarter, they chipped away at the Trojan lead.  By the end of the period, they were down by only three, 40-43.  Chris Johnson and Nate Dow were huge in the paint for the Wasps and Cooper Ballstaedt hit a big three pointer in the quarter.

Wasatch continued its’ bid for a possible comeback win on their first possession of the fourth period as Gordon tied the game on a three pointer igniting the crowd.  The game see-sawed for the next few minutes, but Wasatch found themselves down by four with only a minute remaining and were forced to foul the Trojan guards.

The Wasps only viable tactic to remain in the game wasn’t working because Morgan was sinking their free throws.

With the Wasps down 56-62 and the clock ticking down to half a minute remaining, Wasatch guard Jeff Murdock hit a desperation three pointer from the top of the key bringing the Wasps to within three.  They immediately called timeout.  They would need to foul again quickly and did so, but against Morgan guard Jake Miles who would go to the line again and add his 26^th and 27^th point.

Wasatch would have one last possession, and after a flurry of passes, a couple of missed shots, rebounds and kick-outs, Johnson cranked in a three pointer from way out for the Wasps making it 62-64 with only seconds remaining.  But Wasatch was out of time outs and out of miracles and the game would end with them coming up just short again.

A frustrated murmur from the Wasatch faithful is the only sound in the gym as the two teams and their coaches shook hands.  Afterwards, Coach Magnusson searched for the right words to describe the feeling of the moment.  When complimented on his team’s toughness and unwillingness to surrender, he said, “Yeah, we just need to find a way to win these games.  The guys are okay – they’re confident,” the coach added.  “They’re confident about the things they can still accomplish this season.  That’s the main thing.  We play a tough preseason schedule and we just got to get over these losses and find ways to win them.  It doesn’t get any easier though, so we’ll just have to keep working hard and do it.”

Gordon Jackson led the scoring for Wasatch with 17 points and Chris Johnson was right behind him with a strong 15 points to go along with his seven rebounds.  Nate Dow contributed 11 points and was tops in the game with eight boards.