Green River boys basketball play in state tourney

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

The Green River Pirate boys’ basketball team concluded their season with two losses at the recently completed 1-A Utah State basketball tournament in Richfield. Green River finished tied for third in region 19 action this season with Monument Valley. The two had a play-off game to see which would actually make the state tournament. The Pirates defeated Monument Valley 83-62 in a game played in Monticello.
At the state tournament, Green River first faced Tintic, the region 18 regular season champion, and lost the game 68-57. The next day Green River played Piute and came out again on the short end by the score of 66-50. The loss ended the Pirates season.
At Monticello, four Pirates ended the game by scoring in double figures led by Spencer Marshall with 22 points. Nick Corrigan scored 18, Adrian Escalante scored 14 and TJ Hughes added 12 points. Also scoring were Chance Pfander with 9 points and Jon Mendez with 8.
Monument Valley grabbed the first quarter lead at 21-15 but the Pirates rolled throughout the second and third periods by outscoring their opponent 47-23 to claim the win.
Against Tintic, Green River outscored Tintic 40-32 in the second and fourth quarters but Tintic won the other two periods 36-17 to win the game. Escalante was the leading scorer in the game with 19 points and Adrian also had 8 steals, 4 assists and 3 rebounds. Hughes was the only other player in double figures as he scored 15 points and TJ led the team with 10 rebounds.
Also scoring in the game were Marshall with 7, Corrigan and Pfander with 5 each, Mendez with 3, Nathan Cox with 2 and Corbin Mecham with 1 point.
Against Piute, Green River fell behind 18-8 in the first quarter and never really threatened after that. Escalante also led the scoring in this game with 15 points and was the only Pirate in double figures for the game. Also scoring in the game were Corrigan with 9, Hughes with 7, Marshall and Pfander with 6 along with Marty Spadafora and Zack Shaffer with 3 points.
Hughes was the leading scorer for the season with 9.46 average followed by Marshall at 8.63, Escalante at 8.50 and Pfander at 7.54. Pfander hit 30 three points shots to lead the team and Hughes was second with 24.