The Malad Dragon fans cheered on the boys basketball team for their last home of the season Wednesday, January 31 as they took on the BLHS Bears.  Bear Lake’s team, leading in the district and currently ranked 2nd in the 2A state standings, brought a very fast paced game, with a very patient and disciplined offense coupled with a tough defense.  Malad knew they would be facing a challenging team when they walked onto the court.

         As the game began, the Dragon defense went to work defending the hoop from the Bear’s strong offensive execution.  The team was quick to cover inside, block the lanes and keep the Bear Lake offense from getting inside the key with the ball.  Prioritizing defending the shot that the tall and physical team could more easily score on, Malad had their outside defenders sag in for help defense.  This left the Bear’s outside shooters a little more open and potential shooting opportunities from the outside.  Once Bear Lake realized they couldn’t penetrate the Dragon defense inside, they began working for the outside shot.  Unfortunately, they couldn’t miss and quickly took a big lead against Malad.

Bear Lake brought an intense defense as well, featuring a strong full court press.  The Dragons were ready to face the press and found ways not only to get the ball down the court but to create scoring opportunities as well.  Midway through the opening quarter, Jaden Ward quickly inbounded the ball to Zack Richardson.  Richardson began taking the ball down the floor and then passed back to Ward who reconnected with Richardson farther down the court.  He then found Ryan Hubbard open inside the Dragon territory on the sideline who connected with Braylen Tripp as he moved into the key and scored two easy points for Malad.  Ward kept the scoring rolling on the next Malad possession as he hit a big shot from behind the three point line after an assist from Richardson. 

From the beginning of the season, the Dragons have worked to improve their rebounding, understanding how crucial the second chances were for their offense and even more important to keep their opponents from the same.  Throughout the night, Malad’s players managed to snag the missed shots in hopes of turning their rebounds into scoring opportunities.  As the first quarter was coming to a close, Hubbard grabbed one more rebound for the Dragons and put it up for two points as well as getting fouled on the play.  Hubbard finished the play by making the free throw and making it a three point play.

The Dragons were slow to come out as they started the second quarter offensively, but as they worked the ball around and executed their offense, they fell into a rhythm that converted into points on the scoreboard.  The Malad offense found that as they passed the ball into the high post at the free throw line, they could either connect with an open wing for a shot on the arc or could turn and take it to the hoop for a close shot.  Baylor Bean hit multiple shots from behind the arc after forward Tripp kicked the ball back out  after the Bear defense collapsed in, leaving Bean alone on the outside.

As the second half came into play, the Dragons started off hot, scoring five points in less than one minute.  Unfortunately, the Bear defense picked back up to keep the Dragons from their fast rolling offense.  While the Malad offense wasn’t able to take off, the defense stood strong to keep the Bear’s scoring at a minimum.  

Over the latter half of the game, the Dragons held their opponent to only 21 points for the half, less points than they had scored in either the first or second quarter.  Head Coach Zach Beutler shared, “We hung in there with them the second half of the game.  We know we can keep up with them, it's just a matter of playing consistently like that for four quarters.  We just never could catch back up from that first quarter run”  The final score of the game was Malad 35, Bear Lake 68.

 Just two days later, the Dragons traveled to Aberdeen for their second matchup against the Tigers.  Malad showed good energy as they began the first quarter of the game, trailing 16-20 behind Aberdeen, the second ranked team in the district.  But as the second quarter wore on, that same energy and level of competition waned.  Once again, the Dragons were able to bounce back as they came into the second half of the game, scoring 19 points to Aberdeen’s 20 in the third quarter.  Moving into the final quarter, the team once again struggled to connect with the basket, falling farther behind the Tiger’s lead.  As the final buzzer rang out Malad was down 47-73.

Coach Beutler shared that it has been a real struggle over the last several weeks to find that team connection and chemistry for the team.  Unfortunately the team has struggled with injury, illness and other issues that have forced players to miss practices.  Despite the challenges the team is facing on and off the court, those players dedicated to their team and to the game have proven that they aren’t willing to give up yet.  The team has one final game against Soda Springs before they will play for a spot in the district tournament.