The latest Utah boys basketball RPI rankings have Herriman rated as Utah’s best 6A team. Mountain Ridge, meanwhile, is 13th.

On Friday night Herriman came out on top in a Region 2 battle, though the Sentinels showed that disparity may not be so large.

Cale Barclay scored 24 points and Carlo Mulford had seven of his 21 points in a three-minute span in the fourth quarter to lift the Mustangs to a 74-67 win in front of a near-capacity crowd enjoying a tough Region 2 game.

“Typical, close region game between two good teams,” said Doug Meacham, the longtime coach who is in his second year at Herriman and has the Mustangs eyeing their first league title in their 15-year history. “By this time, teams are seeing each other for the second time and they have been able to make adjustments and we have to adjust with them.”

Regarding Mulford, he added, “He sees the court well and gets all the other players involved. They know that they can’t beat everyone unless they play together and we’re taking our season one game at a time and winning the same way.”

Herriman handled the adjustments well enough to improve to 18-1 overall and 6-0 in region. The Mustangs have a two-game lead in the Region 2 standings with four remaining.

Mountain Ridge coach Scott Briggs, another savvy veteran coach whose resume includes one season at Herriman before taking the Mountain Ridge job, saw his team drop to 9-9 overall and 2-4 in region.

Briggs said this contest reminded him of the first one between the teams this season three weeks ago (a 60-47 Herriman win) on the Sentinels’ home floor.

“We lost our composure a bit in the third quarter and let the game get away,” Briggs  said.  “A lot of (6A) teams are pretty talented and closely matched. We might get a chance to play them again, and if we keep improving, I like our chances.”

The Sentinels had a balanced-scoring effort with Will Lindsay and Sawyer Howell leading the team with 15 points apiece. Landon Blackwell added 13 and Jordan Horsley 12.

Mountain Ridge and Herriman both shot well from the 3-point stripe and left the court at halftime tied 37-37. Herriman, however, used a 10-0 scoring run early in the third period to build a seemingly comfortable lead.

The Mustangs made 10 of 12 shots in the quarter and took advantage of Mountain Ridge’s willingness to accept open 3-point attempts from well beyond the line. The lead grew to double figures before the Sentinels found their range again and, not surprisingly, the lead disappeared.

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Howell’s layup with 5:37 left cut the margin to 60-57 and another easy basket by Lindsay made it a one-point game before Mulford came through to ease the Herriman fans’ unrest.

Probably the most interesting part of the contest occurred shortly after Lindsay’s bucket. With the game still close (68-64), Mountain Ridge used full-court pressure to nearly steal an inbounds pass.

Herriman tried to get the ball in play but had to call two consecutive timeouts to find an open player while avoiding a five-second call. Finally, the Mustangs resorted to lofting the ball nearly the length of the court where the 6-foot-8 Barclay grabbed it and was immediately fouled.

Barclay made the ensuing charity shots — the first of six straight by the Mustangs — and that ended the threat.

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