Copper Hills wanted to get region play started off on the right foot and couldn’t have asked for a better result, easily defeating Corner Canyon 45-27 Thursday night in Draper.
While they weren’t as sharp offensively as they would have liked, the Copper Hills defense was locked in for all four quarters, allowing just six total points in the first half and holding Corner Canyon to their lowest scoring output of the season so far.
“We wanted to come out on our first region game and kind of set the tone,” Copper Hills head coach Jake Timpson said. “We didn’t want to come out and just lay an egg. Region (play) is super important, so we really focused on this game being an important region game and we wanted to set the tone for what we want to do the rest of the region.”
Copper Hills got a solid performance from Skylie Barker with 18 points. Ayla Marston also contributed with 13 points and went 5-6 from the free throw line.
The bright spot for Corner Canyon was the play of Sorrelle Nielsen, who was responsible for scoring 14 of her team’s 27 points.
By taking care of things on the defense side of the ball, Copper Hills was able to get the win on a night when they were not as crisp on offense as they would have liked.
“We got good open shots and we especially locked them up defensively,” Timpson said. “We held them to six points, which is one of our better defensive halves of the season. That’s what I think our team can be like when we when we play the defense the way I know we can. We’re a really good defensive team, and if we make that our first priority, good things usually happen for us.”
Copper Hills took a commanding 27-6 lead into halftime. While Corner Canyon improved their performance in the second half, the victory was never in question for the visitors.
“One thing we’re really trying to emphasize with this team this year is you have to play all four quarters and you have to play hard all four quarters and then the let the results take care of themselves,” Timpson said. “Sometimes we have a tendency to do really well and then we kind of let up a little bit. I think tonight we did a good job of continuing to play really good defense and I just didn’t think we were as sharp as I wanted to be offensively.”
Timpson knows that in order to be any sort of threat in region, Copper Hills needed to start off with a dominant performance to gain momentum as they head deeper into region play.
“This game was something to build off of as we go into our next game and our region is really good this year,” he said. “We have a lot of really good teams and so it’s just important to start off with a win and start off with some momentum. We have the weekend to get ready for our next opponent and when you win that first game, it kind of takes a little pressure off so we really wanted to start off really well and get that first region win.”