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SANDY — During his junior year, Kyle Davis made a name for himself as a basketball standout at Centennial High in Boise. Davis did enough to garner Idaho all-state honors and earn a scholarship offer from Southern Utah.
After committing to play for SUU, Davis and his family relocated to Utah, and he joined Alta for his senior season.
Playing for the Hawks has felt like a step up in play for the 6-foot-7 forward.
"I just owe my coaches everything," Davis said. "They've really helped me really just elevate my game since I moved here."
Alta owes Davis quite a bit too for its strong play this season. The senior scored 22 points and made 7-of-8 fourth quarter free throw attempts to help the Hawks hold off Region 4 foe American Fork for a 57-53 victory on Wednesday night.
Alta (9-3, 2-1) needed all of it from Davis after a fourth quarter meltdown allowed the Cavemen (8-4, 0-3) to rally late.
The Hawks took a 50-33 lead when Davis drained a pair of free throws with 4:23 left. After that point, things began to unravel. Ben Beddes buried a 3-pointer just 13 seconds later to spark a 20-5 American Fork run.
The Cavemen made it 55-52 when Chase Hansen scored a basket with just under a minute left.
Beddes had a chance to trim it to one at the line with six seconds remaining. He missed his second free throw, however, and Jordan Brown secured the rebound and Davis fed the ball down court for a buzzer-beating layup from Landon Barlow
The Hawks helped create those tense last seconds with eight missed free throws over the final 3 1/2 minutes. American Fork took advantage by hitting six of its last nine field goal attempts.
"At the end, we kind of let them get back into it with some sloppy play," Davis said. "They shot their way back into it and did great at the end."
Solid play from late in the first quarter to early in the fourth quarter helped take American Fork out of the game initially.
Trailing 8-7, Brown drove for a pair of layups to help Alta close the first quarter on a 7-0 run and stake out a 14-8 lead. The Hawks pushed that advantage to 27-19 just before halftime on a flurry of baskets from Brown and Davis.
Alta picked up right where it left off in second half, going up 35-24 on a dunk by Davis — his second of the game — with 5:54 remaining in the third quarter.
Hawks coach Jim Barker credited his team with showing good spacing and patience. That allowed the offense to open up as the game wore on.
"We were just moving the ball a little bit better than we have in the past," Barker said. "Because we were moving the ball, it made the defense have to shift more."
Better ball movement equaled better shooting. Alta shot a blistering 73 percent from the field in the first half alone and finished at 59 percent for the game.
e-mail: jcoon@desnews.com