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St. George • If the purpose of a game-long press is to create chaos, Desert Hills was more than a little successful on Wednesday night.

The second-ranked Thunder used their depth and constant pressure to capture a 61-52 victory over Hurricane in a sloppily played Region Nine boys opener.

"We like to hang our hat on that," said Desert Hills coach Wade Turley about his team's pressing defense. "I feel like we have the depth and athleticism to get after people. They did a good job in the first half getting behind us, but we made some adjustments at halftime and that helped."

Both teams were streaky, playing well in stretches before reverting to turnovers and missed shots.

Desert Hills, which improved to 11-1 with its only loss coming to 5A Westlake, hit six 3-pointers in the first half and had a few more streaks than Hurricane.

The Tigers hung close for most of the first half, but a Desert Hills streak of eight points at the end of the first and start of the second half opened up a 17-point lead that was too much for Hurricane to overcome.

The Tigers, who got double-figure performances from Josh Parker, Riley Ballard and Reagan Hinton, managed to cut the Thunder advantage to eight points several times down the stretch but never seriously threatened the home team.

Tyler Simister led Desert Hills with 22 points, Logan Hokanson had 12 and Tanner Turley had 10 as the Thunder showed off good balance and depth.

Still, Desert Hills struggled at times with turnovers and sloppy play, something their coach said needed work.

"We made a lot of mental errors and a lot of turnovers," said Turley. "We need to clean things up, but our kids were resilient."

And then there was that press, a tactic all but guaranteed to cause other Region Nine teams trouble now that league play has opened.

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Storylines

R Second-ranked Desert Hills uses its pressing defense to open Region Nine with a victory.

• Tyler Simister leads the Thunder to their 11th win with 22 points.

• Josh Parker, Riley Ballard and Reagan Hinton all hit double figures for Hurricane, which struggled with turnovers.