| Navajo Mountain plays defense against Pirates, Jace Vetere. |
The Green River High boys and girls basketball teams kept right on winning as both lead the region. The Lady Pirates have finished region play with an 8-1 record and the region championship as they won two games last week. On Feb. 3 they defeated Navajo Mtn. by 103-37. On Friday they defeated Monument Valley 80-44 and on Saturday they hosted Monticello in a game to decide the region championship. Green River won 41-37. The Lady Pirates next game is in Richfield at the Sevier Valley Center as the state playoffs begin with their first game on Wed. Feb. 15 at 1 p.m.
The boy’s basketball team also won two games as they defeated Navajo Mountain 85-29 two Fridays ago and then last Friday night defeated Monument Valley 54-45. The boys lead the region with a 6-0 record and two games left to play before state the first week of March.
Against Monument Valley, the Lady Pirates took a 25-8 first quarter lead and then continued the assault over their out manned opponent. Leading the Pirates were Heidi Vetere with 22 points and Adriana Cordova with 21 points.
Also scoring were Brandi Webster with 8 points, Charle Vetere with 7 points, Ciji Vetere and Leah Swalberg with 6 points each, Whitney Bigelow with 5 points and McKenzie Spadafora with 4 points.
On Saturday, the Lady Pirates hosted Monticello in a game to decide first place in region and the number one region seed for the playoffs. Both teams had finished the regular season with 7-1 records.
Monticello led 11-5 after the first quarter, 21-16 at the half and 31-22 after the third quarter to seemingly be in control of the game. But the Pirates had other things in mind as they outscored Monticello 19-6 to grab the win. Adriana scored 9 of her game high 16 points in the period to fuel the Pirate offensive attack. It is ironic that good offense breeds good defense or is it good defense breeds good offense. Either way they go hand in hand.
Also scoring were Ciji with 8 points, Heidi with 7 points, Whitney with 6 points and Charle with 4 points.
Neither team shot free throws particularly well in the game. Monticello was a miserable 10 for 31 for 32 percent. Green River was only slightly better at 11 for 25 for 44 percent.
Three Pirates finished in double figures against Navajo Mountain. Brent Johnson led the way with 26 points followed closely by Kaden Robertson with 24 points and Kaleb Fail with 19 points. Other scorers were Brennan Bigelow with 5 points, Adrian Lucero and Jace Vetere with 4 points each and Tyler Johnson with 3 points. Robertson had 4 three-point shots in the game and Fail added three more.
Green River won the first quarter 20-2 to put the game away early. They took the next three quarters 17-10, 26-10 and 22-7.
In a tighter game against Monument Valley, the Pirates got out early to a 19-9 first quarter lead. They were outscored the next two quarters 12-9 and 11-8 to have only a four point lead going into the final period. They played well in the final quarter to grab a 9 point win. Robertson led the way with 22 points including three 3-pointers. Fail contributed 13 points including a three-pointer and Brent Johnson added 11 points. Adrian and Jace each had 4 points.