Freshman Kody Wilstead showed some of the same athletic potential he showed on the football field this past season with impressive sequences on the hardwood Thursday night. The 6-foot-5 ninth-grader scored 18 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and swiped three steals. So good was Wilstead, only 18 minutes of play were needed of him.
The knowledge of game strategy was about tempo, with Parowan trying to alleviate the size advantage of Pine View.
“They will press the whole game,” Pine View’s head coach Darrell Larsen said before the game.
Instead of trying to set their own tempo control, Larsen believed his players could run with Parowan and let the game unfold how it may.
“I’d like to see if our kids could handle more up-tempo—get up and down a little bit—but it just depends on if our kids have legs,” said Larsen.
Because of Pine View’s schedule, and the amount of games they’ve played, Larsen let them take the morning off.
“We usually get them up early in the morning and get them out of bed but I just let them take a break today,” he said.
Coach Larsen’s understanding of the situation proved to pay off. Pine View looked fresh and energized all game. Though they needed an entire quarter to figure out how to break Parowan’s full court press, they finally did. And once they handled the press, the Rams were subject to Pine View’s ability. The Panthers effectively executed their offense and received easy shot after easy shot. On the other end, Pine View’s tough defense put a stranglehold on Parowan as well. The Rams scored a meager four points in the second quarter, eight points in the third and three points in the fourth.
With so many missed Parowan shots, Pine View’s large front line, led by Wilstead, Cody Boyer, and Wesley Moeai raked in the rebounds. Pine View as a team gathered 17 offensive rebounds, and many of those led to easy put-backs. The Panthers had more offensive rebounds than Parowan’s total rebound count and though that seemed like the difference maker, it all came back to tempo.
As Coach Larsen said at the beginning of the game, “If we can handle their pressure and control the tempo, we’ll be ok.”
“People don’t know this about us but we can shoot the ball well,” he said. “We have just gone through growing pains … but were going to be alright.”
Boyer had a big game off the bench with nine points and nine rebounds while Moeai had a solid eight points and nine rebounds off the bench too.
Parowan’s Justin Hulet finished with 12 points for the Rams.
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BOXSCORE
Parowan 21—4—8—3 < 36 (1-7)
Pine View 16—14—16—18 < 64 (7-3)
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