Boys Show Desert Hills The Door 52-46

The unheralded Wasatch Wasps, given no chance by anyone outside of Heber to win their first round 3A playoff game, come up huge with a gritty performance against the heavily favored Thunder.

By Kenny Bristow

I got to The Nest a little earlier than usual last night... about 45 minutes before tip-off.  I was only there about 10 minutes when I knew the gut feeling I had been carrying around all week was going to come to fruition in about two and a half hours.  I felt it in the air.  I heard it in the music being piped through the gym.  I saw it in the focused faces and far away eyes of the local boys as they took their pregame warm-ups.

The Desert Hills Thunder, forced to take the long bus ride from southern Utah to face the 9-13 Wasps, arrived flat, were put back on their heels and lost to the home team, who were playing with chips on their shoulders.

I've been covering Wasatch for the Deseret News online the past couple of weeks, as most of you may know.  About 3 o'clock, my editor called me to change-up my assignment.  A staff writer would be there in Heber to write the game report, so I was asked to write a side story.  No problem.  I had already figured out that Wasatch was going to win this game and the story of their turnaround season would fall perfectly into my lap.  Here's that article:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865573358/High-school-boys-basketball-Wasatch-Wasps-enjoy-fighting-for-their-lives.html

The Wasatch High School student body rushes to the floor after the final buzzer to celebrate with their boy's basketball team.  The Wasps earned the second seed home playoff game last weekend with a victory at Union.  Using that home court advantage, Wasatch upset the Desert Hills Thunder Friday night 52-46 to advance to the second round next Thursday at Weber State University.  The Wasps will again be heavy underdogs as they face Spanish Fork.

For those of you who like to read my play by play reports - I still kept one, of course.  Lately in these Wasatch games, the story of their about face is hidden in the score sheet.  Looking back on my notes, hours after scribbling them down, I can relive the moments where the Wasps' tenacity and refusal to fall behind and keep control of the game led to their victory.

After taking the quick lead 3-0 on a layin by sophmore forward Nate Dow and a free throw by senior guard Cooper Ballstaedt, the Wasps fell victim to the hot shooting hands of the Thunder.  The Desert Hills squad looked fresh as they opened up a 10 point advantage about six minutes into the game.  Their second of six three pointers on the night put the Thunder up 17-7.  Wasatch, as they had failed to do earlier in the season, did not panic and simply kept their heads in control of their emotions.

The Wasps closed the gap with three unanswered scores before the 1st quarter would close.  Junior point guard Jeff Murdock and seniors Chris Johnson and Blake Hanson all had buckets to bring Wasatch to within four.

The home team would settle down even more in the second quarter as they outscored Desert Hills 14-10 in the frame.  Ballstaedt started it off with a three point basket and the team began to feel inspired.  They raised their level of defensive intensity creating turnovers and missed shots by the Thunder, leaving the visiting team frustrated.  A steal by Johnson and his assist to Murdock led to an and-one opportunity that made the score 22-21 D-Hills.  A put back by Dow in the closing seconds gave Wasatch the lead, but the Thunder tied it up at 27 with a foul shot to end the half.

Wasatch came out after the break with an energy not seen in several weeks.  They smothered the Thunder with an attacking defense creating turnover after turnover.  But their shots would not fall, even though several were uncontested by a seemingly shocked Desert Hills team.  Because those points were not scored by Wasatch, D-Hills was able to stay in the game despite being dominated on the court.  The game got physical, but the referees stayed out of it causing the home crowd to jeer and boo as they felt their boys were being manhandled.

A technical foul on the Thunder bench sent Murdock to the stripe for Wasatch and the guard connected on both giving them the lead 33-27.  It was not until the two minute mark in the third quarter that Desert Hills finally got on the second half score board.  Once they did, they ran off seven unanswered points to wrestle the lead away from the Wasps when the quarter expired.

This night belonged to Wasatch however.  They turned in their best period of the night when it counted, scoring 19 points and shutting down the Deseret Hills outside shooting attack.  Trading buckets throughout the first five minutes, the two squads kept within three points of each other.  It wasn't until the 1:50 mark that Wasp senior guard Jake Larsen hit on a two of two free throw opportunity, putting the home team up by four, that you could feel the win in Wasatch's grasp.

Desert Hills' only hope at this point was to continue to foul.  Head Coach Lonnie Magnussson called his plays for the ball to end up in the hands of his hot shooting guard Jeff Murdock.  The junior iced five of six attempts in the final minute to seal the upset at 52-46 for the Wasps.

It's still too early to call this a Cinderella story, but she's certainly shopping for her dress.  It was, in a nutshell, a tremendous victory for Wasatch considering how far they've come since November.  A team that once looked like they would make the post season simply because there were three teams in their region worse than them, now looks like a team that could be on a roll.  A scary type of roll if you're on the heavily favored next opponent's side.

That opponent is 18-3 Spanish Fork, a team who hasn't lost a game since dropping their last three of 2012.  The first loss of those three was to Desert Hills.  Tip-off for the second round match is scheduled for 12:50 on Thursday afternoon at Weber State University.