PLEASANT VIEW -- Friday night's game between Mountain Crest and Weber was a statistical nightmare for both coaches, but in the end the Mustangs found a way to win ugly.
Trailing by as many as seven points early in the fourth quarter and three points in the waning moments of the contest, Mountain Crest managed to overcome a poor shooting night and turnover plagued performance by outscoring the Warriors 6-0 in the final 21.9 seconds to come away with a thrilling 48-45 victory.
"It all came down to turnovers and offensive rebounds," said Weber coach Mark Larsen. "I don't like making excuses, so this will be the last time that I do, our inexperience showed tonight. Our learning curve is short and we are making progress, but tonight we turned the ball over too many times and gave them too many second chances."
There were some bright spots in Weber's loss. The Warriors defense held the Mustangs to a paltry 34 percent shooting from the floor (15-of-44). The only problem was that Weber only connected on 32 percent of its attempts (12-of-37).
Neither team played exceptionally well in the first half as Mountain Crest lead 15-13. All things considered, the Warriors were glad to trail by just two at the intermission considering that they had turned the ball over nine times and made just four out of 17 field goal attempts.
It looked as though Weber had shaken its first half doldrums by jumping out to a five point lead midway through the third period before settling for a 30-27 lead heading into the final frame. The Warriors extended their lead to seven with 6:31 remaining, and looked well on their way to a win before going cold again.
The Warriors went nearly five minutes without a score until Hayden Schenck drilled a 3-pointer with 1:34 to play that gave them a 41-39 lead. Mountain Crest's Alex Kuresa countered with a free throw to pare the deficit to just one, but a pair of charity tosses by Curtis Child gave Weber some breathing room at 43-40 with just over a minute to play.
* HURRICANE 57, MORGAN 50: At Richfield, the Trojans carried a 4-point lead into the fourth quarter, but were outscored 24-12 in the final period for the disappointing loss.
Boston Gubler scored 17 points to lead the Tigers to the comeback victory on the road.
Morgan was led by Casey Evans and Jared Brooks, who scored 16 and 10 points, respectively.
* NORTH SEVIER 66, LAYTON CHRISTIAN 57: At Richfield, the Eagles held a 13-point lead at the half, but North Sevier dominated in the second half -- out-attempting Layton Christian 36-11 from the free throw line -- for the win.
Jaden Gurney connected on five 3-pointers for a game-high 21 points for the Wolves.
The Eagles were led by Colin Greenhill with 19 points and Jake Bigler knocked down 14.
* MADISON, IDAHO 51, CLEARFIELD 49: At Clearfield, a last-second bucket from Madison's Riker Pierce spelled doom for the Falcons in a back-and-forth contest at home.
Danny Johnson led Clearfield with a game-high 14 points, but three different players from Madison scored in double digits.
* BRIGHTON 71, FREMONT 51: At Salt Lake City, the Titans kept it close through two quarters, but the Bengals pulled away in the second half for the win.
Corbin Miller hit a trio of 3-pointers and scored 19 points for Brighton in the victory.
Jason Lema and Patrick Fishburn led Fremont, who scored 15 and 10 points, respectively.
* HUNTER 61, NORTHRIDGE 59: At West Valley City, the Knights dropped a heartbreaker on the road when Hunter's Dimitri Saliba connected on a pair of free throws with 12.8 seconds remaining to break a tie.
The Knights led by 9 points at the break, but the Wolverines outscored Northridge 22-13 in the third quarter to narrow the gap.
Kade Peterson scored 18 points to lead the Knights in the loss.
* SKY VIEW 72, BEAR RIVER 59: At Garland, the Bears let another close game slip away at home.
Bear River led with four minutes to go, but Sky View was sterling at the free throw line to pull away. Casey Oliverseon led the Bobcats with 26 points.
A.J. Sanchez led Bear River with 14 points, Derek White added 12, Brady Jensen chipped in with 11 and Cade Capener added nine.
* ROWLAND HALL-ST. MARK'S 52, ST. JOSEPH 35: At Salt Lake City, Wesley Austin scored 15 points and Steve McCarthy added a dozen as the Winged Lion topped the Jayhawks.
Pat Cozzi led St. Joseph with nine points, while Daniel Philpot added seven points, all on free throws.
The Jayhawks led 9-7 after the first quarter but had a cold shooting night in the paint, and also missed 14 free throws.
In other non-league games, Logan hosted Park City, Bountiful edged Bingham 64-63, while Woods Cross fell to Viewmont 59-48.
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