LAYTON -- It ended up being a storybook ending, just not the one most people would have figured.
In front of a raucous home crowd, Layton's Kade Petersen, Northridge's leading scorer a year ago, took on his former teammates. Petersen scored 23 points, but the Knights got the victory as sophomore Jacob Bigler, who had 19 points to his credit all season coming in, dropped in 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting to give Northridge a 57-46 win in the Region 1 opener.
"Jake played within the offense and he gave us a great spark off the bench," Northridge coach Chad Sims said.
The victory snapped a three-game losing skid for the Knights after having 10 days to dwell on it since their last game on January 3.
The contest was tight early, with Northridge holding a 6-5 advantage late in the first quarter. That's when Bigler got it going. He dropped in eight straight points, including a pair of three-pointers to push the Knight lead to 14-5.
Northridge eventually pushed the lead to 20-7 as the Lancers went without a field goal for over eight minutes. However, after Mike Hibbert's bucket ended the drought, Layton got itself back into the contest.
The Knights went over four minutes without a point as the Lancers used a 14-0 run to knot the score at 20 late in the second period. However, Bigler followed with another 3-point shot to give the Knights the lead for good.
"We knew it was going to be a game of runs and we knew that they were going to come back," Sims said. "We knew it was going to be back and forth but we just wanted to be on top at the end."
Northridge built its lead back up to 31-25 at the half and went up by as many as 10 early in the fourth quarter, before the Lancers trimmed the deficit back to four at 49-45 with less than a minute to play. From there, the Knights went 8-for-8 from the foul line to stave off the comeback.
The Northridge defense held Layton to only 10 field goals and less than 24 percent shooting.
Karson Casteel scored 14 for the Knights, while Marcus Kemp and Hibbert each had eight for Layton behind Petersen's effort.
* FREMONT 51, WEBER 38: At Plain City, the Silver Wolves turned the tables on the high-flying Warriors in the Region 1 opener.
Rowdy Stucki and Brock Smith tallied 12 points apiece for Fremont (1-0 league, 7-5 overall). Travis Stringham added nine.
Hayden Schenck lead Weber (0-1, 10-2) with 16 points. The Warriors fell behind by nine at halftime.
Region 5
* SKY VIEW 50, ROY 44: At Roy, the visiting Bobcats left town with a tight win over the Royals.
Casey Oliverson scored 16 for Sky View (1-0 league, 9-2 overall), while Ty Nielsen added 11.
Jesse Wayment and Blake Toyn scored 11 apiece for Roy (0-1, 7-5), while David Hadley tallied 10 points.
* BONNEVILLE 45, BOX ELDER 44: At Washington Terrace, the Lakers held off an upset-minded Bees team that had a final shot at the buzzer.
Quinton Larson scored 13 points and Brady Borklund had nine points for the Lakers (1-0, 7-5), who led from the second period on.
Braxton Buckway added eight points and Beck Nelson had seven rebounds to go with five steals and four points. The Lakers held a 30-24 rebounding edge.
The Lakers had a chance to put the game away at the foul line but missed a couple of late free throws.
After Trevor Cobbley nailed a late 3-pointer to cut the lead to one, Bonneville missed another foul shot with 12 second to play. But Shad Watson was tripled-teamed, and unable to get off a great shot.
Watson led th Bees (0-1, 3-9) with 14 points, while Steven Didericksen added a dozen.
In the other league game, Mountain Crest topped host Logan, 69-55.
Region 6
* BOUNTIFUL 78, CLEARFIELD 49: At Clearfield,
Bountiful rolled out to a 49-25 halftime edge and coasted to the Region 6 opener.
Brit Harding hit five 3-pointers and 29 points for the Braves. Zach Seljaas added 13.
Marquis Jones led the the Falcons (0-1, (1-10). A.J. Brower and Miguel Lozano added nine points apiece.
Region 11
* BEAR RIVER 55, STANSBURY 50: At Garland, the Bears made a jump up the league standings with a solid home win.
Kyle Zundel scored 14 of his team-high 16 points early to get the Bears off to a 31-24 halftime edge. After the Stallions rallied, Bear River made the key plays in the final period to improve to 2-3 in league, 3-11 overall.
Kirby Harris led Stansbury (2-2, 6-7) with 16 points.
* MORGAN 44, GRANTSVILLE 39: At Grantsville, the Cowboys were content to slow the game down but it still resulted in a win for the league-leading Trojans.
Jake Miles scored 16 points and Boston Saunders added 13. Morgan (5-0, 10-3) jumped out to a 16-9 edge after one quarter and made 20-of-27 foul shots to stay ahead until the end.
Devin Adams scored scored 14 for Granstville (0-5, 3-11).
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