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Tied for the Region 5 lead with Woods Cross, Highland had a golden opportunity Tuesday to put some separation between the leaders and the middle of the pack with a big road win.

Instead, the Rams are part of the pack now.

East High (11-6, 4-3) inserted itself into the conversation for the league title with a 72-61 victory at home.

"This is a big week for us and we had to start with this one," Leopards coach Skip Lowe said. "They did have a real opportunity for some separation, but this pulls us back into it."

Highland (9-8, 4-2) scored the game's first bucket, but then went into a slump that lasted over five minutes.

While the Rams struggled, East — and senior forward Blake Hansen, in particular — pulled out to a 17-2 lead. Several times in the first quarter, Hansen broke free for open baskets en route to 14 points for the game.

That was part of a balanced attack for the Leopards paced by Dacian Spotted Elk's 18 while Hayden Banz (14 points) and Ryan Hurlburt (13) also got into double figures.

"We really needed this win," Spotted Elk said. "We got into a hole (at the beginning of games) earlier in region. We came out flat, but tonight was a different story."

The Rams were led by Brevin Elsholz' 18 points while Jayden Palauni and Christopher Shelton scored 14 and 11 respectively. Highland big man Rick Schmidt talled six points and added 10 rebounds.

East's lead bulged to 19 points in the third quarter and, while the Rams did cut the margin to 13 on five occasions, Highland only got it down to 10 with 2:39 remaining.

"When we were over there (a loss at Highland), we had a 7-point lead with four or five minutes to go," said Lowe, whose team never went into an offensive slump in the rematch. "I'm hoping we're learning and getting smarter."

The Leopards travel to Woods Cross, the other leader in Region 5 coming into the game, on Friday night while Highland hopes to rebound with a home clash against Bountiful.

"They came and hit us in the mouth and we didn't really respond," Highland coach James Boyce said. "We had a real good first round of region. Now we can't let one loss turn into two. We've got to regroup and come back for Friday." —

Storylines

R East avenged an earlier region loss at Highland by blitzing the Rams with a 17-2 run to start Friday's rematch.

• Dacian Spotted Elk scored 18 points to lead the East effort. Blake Hansen also recorded 14 points and eight rebounds for the Leopards.

• Brevin Elsholz had 18 for the Rams, while teammates Jayden Palauni (14) and Christopher Shelton (11) also got into double figures.