The year-long wait to step on the basketball court again finally became a reality for Layton’s Dave Katoa on Friday night.
Around a year ago while playing for Real Salt Lake Academy, Katoa tore his ACL, which pretty much rendered 2023 as a rehab year. The Ute signee transferred back to his hometown school for his senior season, and after practicing with the team since the season opener on Nov. 21, he finally made his long-awaited debut in Layton’s nonregion game at Skyridge.
He scored 14 points, including a thunderous alley-oop dunk coming out of halftime, blocked three shots and grabbed four rebounds as Layton held off a late Skyridge rally to hang on to the 61-58 victory.
“Really excited, just grateful I get to play the game. Having not played for a whole year, you just really learn that the game is really precious and it’s a privilege to play,” said Katoa.
Going forward, the sky’s the limit for the Lancers who were already 11-1 before inserting one of the most talented players in the state into their starting line-up.
“We were already gelled, obviously Dave adds another component,” said Layton coach Kelby Miller. “We’re excited about it, but the region’s tough, the state’s tough.”
Katoa’s return puts Layton forefront in that conversion of the state’s best.
At times it didn’t look like that on Friday, as Layton started sluggish and then closed the game poorly by nearly blowing a 14-point lead.
In the end, it was Katoa’s basketball IQ that helped secure the win for Layton. With the Lancers leading 61-58 with nine seconds remaining, he anticipated Skyridge’s long baseline inbound pass was headed toward Skyridge’s Jordan Kohler — who led all scorers with 24 points — and stepped in front of him for the steal.
He passed the ball to Mekhi Martin, who instead of trying to dribble out the clock attacked the basketball for a contested layup but missed. Skyridge’s Ryder Gentry corralled the rebound with 3.8 seconds remaining, and immediately kicked the ball up court to Dane Housley who had just enough time to dribble up court and get up a decent 3-point shot attempt that bounce off the side of the rim.
Had Housley’s shot bounce in, it would’ve capped a remarkable comeback for the Falcons who trailed 56-42 early in the fourth quarter after a Mekhi Martin 3-pointer for Layton.
Miller sensed his players drop their intensity a bit after that bucket.
“I really felt like were was that moment where we exhaled a little bit, and relaxed a little bit, didn’t box out, didn’t take great shots. I think we settled and took some OK shots,” said Miller.
After Layton scored on its first possession of the fourth quarter, it scored on just three of 11 possessions the rest of the way.
Skyridge, meanwhile, seemed to score nearly ever trip down the floor, slowly whittling the deficit from 14 to 12 to nine and eventually all the way down to three on a Kohler jumper with 50 seconds remaining.
Skyridge’s late energy and scoring spree matched how the home team started the game as it scored the first eight points and built an early 14-5 lead thanks to four three 3-pointers — three from Tate Larson.
Katoa said he naturally felt extra jitters during that opening stretch, which Miller though kind of percolated to the whole team.
“I think we tried to force some things a little bit too much to Dave, when we probably could’ve just gotten out and just played and let him feel his way through his first game with us, but I really love how the guys bounced back, the last three quarter were pretty solid for us,” said Miller.
Layton eventually cut the lead to 21-16 by the end of the first quarter, and led 35-30 at the half as Katoa finished with five first-half points. Layton’s coaches drew up a play coming out of a half for an alley-oop dunk for Katoa, which changed the entire complexion of the game for Katoa.
“That was a big moment, getting that dunk really kind of just set me free, I really felt good mentally just ready to go,” said Katoa.