Despite playing on their home court for the week, the Malad Dragon basketball team struggled against district opponents.  Hosting the West Side Pirates Wednesday, February 5 and the Soda Springs Cardinals Friday, February 7, the MHS team at first kept pace on the court and on the scoreboard.  But as the game ticked on, they allowed their challengers to run away with the game and were never able to recover.

Even though the Wednesday night matchup against the Pirates was their first of the season, the Dragons knew the game with state 3A second-ranked division Pirates would be tough.   Malad experienced a patient and disciplined defense that packed the key, making it difficult to play any inside game that could transition and recover quickly to cover an outside attempt as well.

Fighting to get the ball inside, Justin Toone put points on the scoreboard first for Malad.  Getting fouled on the rebound putback, Toone nailed both bonus shots to bring the score 2-3 for Malad.  Carter Carey scored two possessions later, snagging the rebound and hitting the quick turnaround shot to keep pace with the Pirates and make it 4-5.  

Carey put in another rebound over the front rim to help the Dragons take a momentary lead before West Side took the ball to Pirate territory and drained a deep three.  Carey, having a rebuttal of his own, hit the same outside shot for Malad to put them up again 9-8.  The two teams continued to trade baskets throughout the remainder of the quarter.  Toone, Carey, Zack Richardson and Easton Green managed to claim the lead, 21-20, as they went into the second quarter.

Driving down the middle of the key, Green laid the ball through the net to open the second quarter scoring.  Bringing the ball down the court, West Side hit another contested three pointer to tie the game once again.  Suddenly, Malad’s scoring seemed to altogether shut down, missing both outside and inside shots that had come easily before.  On the other end of the court, the Pirates could hardly miss as they sank a series of three point shots and banked in multiple rebound putbacks.  As they continued to surge on the court, the Dragons found themselves down 23-33 just two minutes into the second quarter.

West Side couldn’t be shut down as they played the remainder of the opening half, putting up 23 points to Malad’s 11.  Unfortunately, the second half didn’t fare any better as the Pirates continued to outscore the Dragons to win 54-75.

Thursday marked the final home game of the season for the MHS team.  Before the tipoff, the team, coaches, parents and fans recognized the outgoing senior basketball players- Brady Showell and Zack Richardson.

It was a slow start for both teams in the opening two minutes against Soda Springs, as each only scored a single basket. 4:06 on the clock, Carey hit a three pointer to put the Dragons up 5-4 before Toone hit another two foot shot to expand the lead.  Throughout the remaining minutes of the game, the MHS team held on to their slight lead, ending the first quarter 12-11.

But just as had happened in their previous game, the Dragons were unable to put the brakes on the surging Cardinal game.  Soda Springs came out in the second quarter to score 24 points while Malad only added 9.  The Cardinals significantly widened the gap on the scoreboard in the second half as they tallied 25 points to the Dragon’s 6.

While the outcome of the most recent games can be frustrating, Head Coach Zach Beutler shared, “I am confident we can extend the season into the first weekend of March if they will lock back in.  When we communicate and fly around defensively we hold #1 Declo to 48 points. When we don’t we allow #2 WS to score 75. On the offensive end when we execute our stuff and make good reads on the defense we consistently score enough to compete with the best.”

He continued, “We competed in both games [this week] for the first quarter and then we became apathetic on both ends of the floor.  Unfortunately, when we become passive and apathetic we get run out of the gym.

“It is no secret we run a tight rotation. We’ve been running this way all season. The guys have shown grit and toughness throughout the season. But the last two games they haven’t brought consistent effort,” he concluded.

The Dragons now move into the final week of their regular season, playing the Pirates at West Side High School on Tuesday, February 11.  They will jump right into the postseason district tournament, playing Saturday, February 15.

Malad vs West Side

Wednesday, February 5

1 2 3 4 T

Malad  21 11 9 13 54

Ririe  20 23 19 13 75

# Name PTS REB AST STL BLK

0 Carter Carey 13 3 3 3 0

1 Easton Green 10 3 3 3 0

3 Ruger Smith 0 1 1 0 0

12 Braun Nalder 2 0 0 0 0

22 Brady Showell 0 3 1 1 0

23 Brayzen Gibbs 5 2 2 1 0

24 Justin Toone 14 5 0 0 0

30 Zach Richardson 10 4 7 2 0

TEAM TOTALS 54 21 17 10 0

Malad vs Soda Springs

Friday, February 7

  1 2 3 4 T

Malad  12 9 4 2 27

Soda Springs  11 24 21 4 60

# Name PTS REB AST STL BLK

0 Carter Carey 8 2 1 0 0

1 Easton Green 3 6 0 3 0

3 Ruger Smith 0 1 0 1 0

12 Braun Nalder 0 0 0 1 0

22 Brady Showell 2 5 1 0 0

23 Brayzen Gibbs 8 4 1 0 0

24 Justin Toone 6 2 0 0 0

30 Zach Richardson 0 3 3 1 0

TEAM TOTALS 27 24 6 6 0