Repeat talk starts early at Wasatch

OREM -- Fifteen minutes into Wasatch's celebration of its 57-51 3A championship victory over Judge Memorial Saturday, the questions were already flying: Will the Wasps repeat?

With three starters back - Josh Cottle, Darin Mahoney and Logan Magnusson - it appears the Wasps have the guns to make another run at it.

"I wish I had another year," Wasatch senior Jeff Gertsch said.

"They're the odds on favorite to win next year," Judge Memorial coach Jim Yerkovich said.

The trio combined for 42 of Wasatch's 57 points with Cottle and Mahoney scoring 15 points each and Magnusson adding 12 more.

Wasatch coach Lonnie Magnusson is deflecting the notion, but at the same time he's not counting his team out.

"It's hard to repeat," Magnusson said. "The future does look good."

"Yes, I think we can," Cottle said, "We have three starters returning."

The Wasatch basketball team was hurt by the success of the football team, which finished second in the state. It had limited time to practice together and were definitely a work in progress early in the year.

"This is a great bunch of kids," Lonnie Magnusson said. "We got off to a slow start because had no preparation. We had to get it together as time went on."

And that they did.

They were 3-5 after their first eight games, but they won 15 of their next 17 games - including 10 of their last 11.

In the four games of the tournament, the Wasps (18-7) won by an average of 14.3 points a game. They came back from a nine-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Bear River in the finals and capped off the tremendous championship run with the thrilling overtime victory over the Bulldogs. In the middle was a 30-point win over Dixie.

Saturday, the Wasps led by seven points with 43 seconds left, but Judge's Tyler Proctor nailed a three-pointer and later banked in a running three-pointer and was fouled. He drained the foul shot and tied the game with 7.2 seconds left.

It was like Coach Magnusson was watching the Judge game with Pine View from the night before.

"Pine View had the game won and they kept coming back," Lonnie Magnusson said. "I thought 'oh, here we go'."

Cottle drove the length of the court for the final shot in regulation, but the leaning three-footer rimmed out.

One minute into overtime, Gertsch, who finished with seven points, completed a three-point play and that gave the Wasps the lead for good.

Judge's standout center Joe Sasich pulled the Bulldogs (19-6) to within a point on the next trip down the floor, but that's as close at they would get.

"That goes for payback from last year," Sasich said, explaining that the Bulldogs beat Wasatch three times last year. "I would have rather had it this year."

The Wasps didn't make a basket in the final minute of overtime, but connected on 7-of-11 foul shots.

"I didn't think we quite had the legs from last night and that hurt us," Yerkovich said. Judge had to go overtime to beat Pine View in the late semifinal game Friday.

Wasatch led by as many as 11 points in the first half before the Bulldogs trimmed the lead to four at the half.

Sasich gave the Bulldogs their first lead since midway through the first quarter when he converted a three-point play with 6:18 left in the fourth quarter. Moments later he regained the lead with a pair of foul shots. They didn't score a point in their next five possessions and the Wasps built what appeared to be the insurmountable seven- point lead.

The basketball championship was Wasatch's first since winning back- to-back titles in 1944 and 1945.

In other games Saturday:

For third

PINE VIEW 42, DIXIE 41: Pine View defeated Dixie for the third time this season to earn a third place finish in the 3A boys basketball tournament. The Flyers controlled most of first half, but the Panthers scored nearly twice as many points as Dixie to earn the win.

Dixie's Tom Whitehead was fouled by Matt Black as he drove to the basket with about 50 seconds left in the game. Whitehead hit both baskets to tie the game at 41.

Palmer missed the first one, but made the second to give the Panthers a one point lead, and three seconds later, the win.

For fifth

LEHI 54, MORGAN 46: The Lehi Pioneers earned a fifth place finish over Morgan with scoring from eight different players.

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