Riverton peaking at the right time

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, I attended the Riverton-Lehi boys basketball game. I'm publishing yearbooks for both of these teams and, since the contest had post-season implications, I thought it was a good one. Here is my game story.


By Bruce Smith
Matchup

The Lehi-Riverton game Tuesday night was supposed to have a tournament atmosphere. The winning team made the postseason; the losing team was done.

It didn’t feel that way.

Riverton opened the game on an 8-0 run and never looked back. Richard Worsham and D McCleary scored 18 points each as the Silverwolves celebrated their “Senior Night” with a convincing 64-43 win over the visiting Pioneers in a Region 4 game.

“We have definitely been playing our best ball the last three or four games,” said Riverton coach Steve Galley. “With our kids, it’s come from within.”

Riverton won its third straight and finished the regular season with an 11-10 record. More importantly, the Silverwolves improved to 4-6 in region and grabbed fourth place. They’ll open the 5A state tournament next week against Viewmont, a team they beat early in the season.

That’s still far into the future. On this night, Riverton wanted to celebrate.

On the other side of court, Lehi recognized not only the end of its season, but an important era. The Pioneers were 11-10 and coach Craig Gladwell acknowledged he had coached his last game.

“This is it for me,” said Gladwell, who led the Pioneers for 10 years at the end of his 42-year career. “It has been a good year, but this is a tough region.

There are no days off. You have to be at your best or you’ll get killed.”

Lehi seemed to be dying early, but Colton College, Brad Cleveringa and Tanner helped cut the margin to three points and had a couple of chances to reduce it even more. Colledge led the way with 10 points and six rebounds. However, he picked up his third foul in the third quarter and the threat ended.

“That made a big difference,” said Gladwell. “I thought about keeping him in there, but if he picked up his fourth then we wouldn’t have had him for the fourth quarter.”

Riverton went on a 12-2 run and the outcome was decided. The Pioneers shot just 32.6 percent and finished 1-14 from three-point range.

The Silverwolves, meanwhile, were just getting started.

The 6-foot-7 Worsham had his best night of the year and created most of Lehi’s defensive problems. He made 6-of-7 shots and also helped the Silverwolves to a 31-20 rebound advantage. McCleary had another great floor game, and the Riverton fans gave him a standing ovation when he came off the court with about two minutes left.

The best part of the show, however, came from Stephan Holm. He used his athletic ability to score 12 points and pull down a game-high seven rebounds. Holm had a nice dunk early in the game and then thrilled the crowd midway through the fourth quarter when he caught a perfect alley-oop pass from senior Austin Anderson and threw it down like an NBA player.

“No, that wasn’t planned,” said Galley, smiling. “That was totally improv, but it worked out well.”


Lehi 10 10 10 13 - 43
Riverton 20 7 17 20 - 64

LEHI (43) – Blake Cleveringa 3-9 3-4 9, Brad McGregor 3-11 0-0 6, Tanner Pittard 3-8 2-2 8, Colton Colledge 3-8 4-7 10, Ryan Christofferson 1-8 1-1 3, Braxton Nerdin 2-3 0-0 4, Trevor Christensen 1-2 0-0 3, Jordan Peck 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Chris Macula 0-0 0-0 0, Colin Anderton 0-0 0-0 0, Gavin Rasmussen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-49 10-14 43.
RIVERTON (54) – Stephan Holm 4-8 4-4 12, Bryce Stone 4-6 0-0 9, Richard Worsham 6-7 6-6 18, Austin Anderson 0-2 0-0 0, D McCleary 5-8 8-8 18, Tevita Loamanu 1-3 2-4 5, Weston Rindlisbacher 0-0 2-2 2, Nathan Erickson 0-0 0-0 0, Jameson Kroll 0-1 0-0 0, Connor Hendersen 0-0 0-0 0, Brady Holt 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Sly 0-0 0-0 0, Skyler Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Neilson 0-0 0-0 0, J.P. Reagh 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-35 22-24 64.
Total fouls: Lehi 14, Riverton 14. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.
Three-point shooting: Lehi 1-14 (Christensen). Riverton 2-8 (Stone, Loamanu).
Rebounds: Lehi 20 (College 6), Riverton 31 (Holm 7).
Turnovers: Lehi 9, Riverton 13.