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Riverton • After an early season showdown with Riverton, American Fork coach Casey Clayton affirmed that, no, his team did not press-and-run this much last season.

In fact, Clayton said it had not been since the state championship year of 2009 that his squad had employed the technique much.

It's apparent that the Cavemen are buying in, with that kind of reward in mind, as American Fork eventually caught and passed the host Silverwolves Tuesday for a 65-61 victory.

"They're a great team and they made a lot of great pushes," said Cavemen junior guard Taylor Moeaki, who finished with 23 points. "But we knew that our pace of play would eventually wear them out.

American Fork (9-6, 4-0) trailed most of the Region 4 contest and only took the lead for good when Moeki drained a 3-pointer with 3:25 left in the game. That came 30 seconds after Morgan Kane for Riverton (10-2, 3-2) scored an old-fashioned three-point play.

Sophomore Kane finished with 26 points and ten rebounds.

After Moeki's trey, the visitors got a pair of big defensive plays to keep the 'Wolves at bay. Post Taylor Franson, who had 15 points for the Cavemen, swatted away an inside shot by Riverton with three minutes remaining. Franson finished with three blocks total and 13 boards.

Still holding a 59-56 advantage, after a Franson free throw, American Fork's Jenna Shepherd picked off a Silverwolves pass — which led to a Moeaki free throw and the first American Fork lead of four points or more since the opening moments of the ball game.

Shepherd was only in her fourth game back after suffering an ACL injury during the soccer season.

"She's not at full minutes yet," Clayton said. "But she's in the game at the end when its important. As she gets her leg back, by the end of the season, we hope to have her back full speed."

Riverton's Tiena Afu, who had nine points, popped in a long three-pointer with 38 seconds remaining to make the score 62-60. That's as close as the home team would get however in the waning seconds.

"We pressed this much back in '07, '08 and '09," said Clayton, whose squad forced Riverton into 23 turnovers. "We're still learning how to do it and we're doing some different things than we did back then. We're taking more risks, which means you give up some buckets sometimes."

The Silverwolves, due to injuries to backcourt regulars, turned out to be the kind of team most susceptible to basket-to-basket pressure defense.

Coach Ron Ence, however, got 12 points from point guard Alexis Roberts and nine from reserve Meredith Coleman.

"Going against AF's experience, and they have really good guards," Ence said. "We really struggled to get anything good that we wanted to do. " —

Storylines

• American Fork stayed undefeated in Region 4 as Taylor Moeaki and Taylor Franson scored 23 and 15 points respectively.

• The visitors' full-court press harassed Riverton, missing three regulars in its guard rotation, into 24 turnovers.

• Riverton center Morgan Kane accumulated 26 points and ten rebounds in the paint while Alexis Roberts scored a dozen points.