By Kyle Goon

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Orem • It’s a scary thought that maybe the Orem boys’ basketball team doesn’t yet know how good it can be.

The Tigers (13-1) hosted Provo (8-6) Tuesday night, expecting a closely fought game that essentially was for the Region 8 championship. What they got was an 82-65 blowout, a contest that was never close and merely served to showcase Orem’s impressive offensive firepower.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

At a glance

—

Orem 82, Provo 65

Orem dominates Provo in a blowout win to stay undefeated in Region 8 play.

Photo gallery » For more photos of the game, visit tribpreps.com

» Josh Pollard leads the team with 21 points; Dalton Nixon scores 18 and Zach Hunsaker adds 16.

» Dallin Bosco scores 25 for the Bulldogs in defeat.

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

Are they the class of 4A? The Tigers are starting to believe it.

"We feel we’re the No. 1 team, and yeah, we like it," junior forward Dalton Nixon said. "We want other teams to be gunning for us."

No one will appreciate Orem gunning for them — this latest victory is proof. The Tigers got out to a quick start on the Bulldogs, as Nixon and senior forward Josh Pollard scored early and Cooper Holt helped them pull away.

By the end of the first quarter, Orem was up 23-11. Zach Hunsaker then caught fire in the backcourt, dropping 12 second-quarter points to push the lead up to 48-26 by halftime. Four Tigers were already in double digits by the intermission.

Provo turnovers helped lead the way for Orem.

"We thought they’d come out trying to control tempo, so we negated that a bit by manning up and playing hard," coach Golden Holt said. "We’re pretty long, so we were able to reach into their passing lanes."

It didn’t seem to matter where the Tigers shot from — in the paint, from outside the arc — they did damage all over the floor. Pollard finished with a team-high 21 points, Nixon with 18 and Hunsaker with 16.

Provo’s Dallin Bosco did his best to help the Bulldogs keep pace, scoring a game-high 25. But the junior guard was held to nine points in the second half, mostly after the game was out of reach. Johnny Flake added 12, while Adam Finch had 11.

kgoon@sltrib.com

Twitter: @kylegoon