(St. George, UT) – The series between the Dixie Flyers and Hurricane Tigers is a bit confusing. Hurricane’s 39-31 win Friday night at the ‘Hanger’ made it the second straight season the teams traded wins on the other’s court. In addition, the Tigers have now won five in a row in the Dixie gym—so much for home court being advantageous.

Unforgiving defensive effort by both squads was the nature of the game. It was hardly a shooter’s night: Dixie shot 27 percent and Hurricane managed 36. Of the 39 points the Tigers tallied, 30 came from inside the paint. The Tigers’ twin towers of Boston Gubler (6-foot-9) and Colton Marshall (6-foot-8) provided the inside strength to carry Hurricane to their fourth win in a row.

Gubler (14 points, nine rebounds) and Marshall (13 points, 13 rebounds) combined for 11-of- 21 in field goal attempts (52 percent) while the remaining Tigers went 4-of-20 from the field—credit the Flyers’ pressure on defense for the unsavory outside results.

Dixie gained the lead in the closing seconds of the first half 18-17 when Kyler Smith knocked down a couple of free throws, but after that, the Tigers went to work utilizing their bigs in the second half. Marshall scored seven of Hurricane’s 10-third quarter points, and he and Gubler registered 10 of the Tigers’ 12 points in the final quarter to close out the win.

“Coach kind of challenged me and Boston to get more boards and finish better,” Marshall said about the halftime discussion inside the Tigers’ locker room.

The duo owned the fourth quarter. They had eight rebounds (four offensive) to go along with the scoring output. Hurricane out-rebounded the Flyers 32 to 15 for the game.

“It feels good to get a win over here,” said Marshall. “It’s tough to play here. We just do what we can on the road; it feels good to get the win.”

Hurricane went on a 7-to-1 run to begin the third quarter, capped by a Weston Yardley trey, making the score Tigers 24-19. The third quarter ended with a 27-22 Hurricane lead. Dixie hit a couple of three-pointers and closed to within 31-29 with four minutes remaining on the clock, but Hurricane was able to fend off any more threat after that.

The Hurricane win and Cedar win over Desert Hills made the Region 9 standings tighter, with four teams within striking distance of winning the region title.

Deshon Brown led Dixie with 10 points and Walker Swensen added eight.

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HURRICANE 39, DIXIE 31

Hurricane 8 9 10 12 < 39

Dixie 4 14 4 9 < 31

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FRIDAY BOYS BASKETBALL RESULTS

Snow Canyon over Canyon View 66-63

Cedar over Desert Hills 65-57 OT

Hurricane over Dixie 39-31

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REGION 9 BOYS BASKETBALL STANDINGS

Desert Hills 6-2 (14-3 overall)

Cedar 6-2 (13-4)

Hurricane 5-2 (11-4)

Dixie 5-3 (9-8)

Snow Canyon 4-4 (9-7)

Pine View 1-6 (8-8)

Canyon View 0-8 (6-10)

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