High school boys baksetball: Bountiful holds off Springville in exciting early season matchup

Gus Sopena had a special plan to prepare for the Springville Red Devils and their 6-foot-10 center, Jamyn Sondrup.

Bountiful’s second-year coach invited a couple of his former players with size from last year’s 19-6 team that won the Region 5 title and reached the 5A quarterfinals to practice.

They happened to be in town for their own reasons and happily put on one of their old practice jerseys and returned to their old high school gym.

The Redhawks don’t have nearly as much height and bulk this year but showed what they can do in a 91-85 win over the Red Devils in a nonregion game Friday night.

Bryson Heath scored 28 points, Lincoln Smith had 22 and Charlie Smith 17 as the Redhawks made 14 three-pointers and won another important early season game against a likely 5A championship contender.

Bountiful shot nearly 60% from the field, including 50% from 3-point range, and held a slight lead lead for much of the game. The Redhawks then made four consecutive treys to turn away a Springville rally in the final five minutes and finished it off with six straight free throws.

“It was about as perfect of a game as we can play,” said Sopena, whose team improved to 4-2. “The kids are buying in. They trust the process. We have a long way to go on defense. We knew Sondrup would get his points but we didn’t let them have any big runs.”

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Sondrup finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. He also blocked three shots but didn’t change many others because the Redhawks’ fast-paced offense and successful outside scoring kept him from becoming the game’s primary factor.

Instead, teammate Andrew Miller was the Red Devils’ main scoring threat with 27 points.

“They play such a great style of ball,” said Springville coach Justin Snell of Bountiful. “This game was going to be decided by who played their style and we weren’t able to contain their shooters.

“They started hitting their shots in the first quarter, and after that we were always playing catch up.”

Springville did take a brief 65-63 lead on one of Miller’s three treys, but Bountiful answered with a 3-pointer of its own and then Lincoln Smith made a pair from long range and Cole Hewlett and Charlie Smith each sank a 3 to build a 10-point lead.

The Devils didn’t quit, though, and cut the margin to four points with 11 seconds left. Asher Mark then knocked the ball away from a Bountiful player on a full-court press but was whistled for a foul that could have gone either way.

Bountiful made the ensuing free throws to end the game. Springville’s record dropped to 5-4 but, like the Redhawks, includes a series of Utah’s most powerful teams on its nonregion schedule.

“There’s still a lot to work on,” Sopena said. “We want to keep getting better and play our best ball in region. I was glad that Springville agreed to come up here and play us. This was a good game and should help with our RPI.”