Box score
Juan Diego clinched a share of the Region 4 championship on Wednesday, something coach Drew Trost believes is still a big deal regardless of the RPI rankings.
Juan Diego has won a lot of region titles in its 25-year history, including eight straight from 2015 to 2022, but none of those were in 5A.
In beating Cyprus 65-50, the Soaring Eagle improved to 9-0 in Region 4 and now has a three-game cushion over Cyprus and Kearns with three games remaining.
“Something that nobody at our school has ever done is won a 5A region championship. So that’s something we’ve talked about a lot, and I think it just plays nicely into you’ve got to take care of business so you can get your best RPI,” said Trost.
“People say it doesn’t matter anymore, but it still matters because you’re building for the RPI and it matters because home and home is a grind.”
Luke Meyer led the way for Juan Diego with 14 points, with Stockton Young chipping in with 13 points.
“We’re excited. It’s a big win, but we play three games this week so we’ve got to stay focused. It’s a tough week,” said Trost.
Juan Diego’s half-court defense was the difference. The bulk of Cyprus’ points came from either the 3-point line or in transition, but Juan Diego’s length made scoring in the paint next to impossible from the half court.
In fact, the Pirates only made three buckets inside the 3-point line that weren’t straight from turnovers or on offensive-rebound putbacks.
Cyprus’ first five baskets were 3-pointers, which kept it in the game early, but once those shots stopped falling Juan Diego’s lead quickly swelled to 36-22 at the half.
Despite that lack of success in the half court, Cyprus strung some transition buckets together midway through the third quarter that made things interesting after it fell behind by 17 earlier in the quarter.
Trailing 41-24, Cyprus ripped off a quick 8-0 run by capitalizing on three-straight Juan Diego turnovers that it turned into points.
Trost called a timeout to quell the momentum, and his team responded quickly. Stockton Young buried a 3-pointer out of the timeout and Juan Diego stretched the lead to 49-38 by the end of the quarter.
Juan Diego continued the momentum into the fourth quarter pushing the lead to as many as 19 points as big man Meyer scored six straight points during a decisive stretch.
“Everybody just pressures the heck out of our guards to try to keep it away from our big guys, and as the season’s gone on we’ve gotten a lot better at handling that and still being able either get it into the big guys or make an adjustment to score in a different way,” said Trost.
Koli Fosita led Cyprus in the loss with 15 points, with Beckham Bayles adding 13. Six different players made a 3-pointer for the Pirates, as they finished with eight 3s.
“They did a nice job. I just credit them, this is an awesome environment, I love this. There’s a good crowd, it’s good for our kids to play in this kind of environment and have people in their face on defense, and the crowd yelling, it’s awesome,” said Trost.