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KAYSVILLE — Saturday's championship game of the Northern Utah Shootout between Olympus and Davis featured two favorites for the 5A and 6A crowns.
The game lived up to the hype, but Olympus looked ready to pull away when sophomore Jordan Barnes drove through the lane for a tough bucket to give the Titans a 49-40 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
Davis looked to be in trouble until senior Rex Sunderland took over. Sunderland had a modest 10 points entering the final quarter but responded to the Olympus basket with a deep 3-pointer to cut the lead to six with just over seven minutes left to play. Sunderland scored 11 of his team's 18 fourth-quarter points and helped Davis make it a one-possession game as they trailed 55-53 with 32 seconds left in regulation.
Up 2, the Titans fouled Davis guard Colby Sims on a 3-pointer, and the head coach's son made all three shots at the charity stripe to give the Darts their first lead of the night with 24 seconds left. After a timeout, Barnes brought the ball up and attempted to feed it inside to future Northern Arizona Lumberjack Jack Wistrcill, but Davis big Sawyer Cottrell made the steal of the game as he fought over Wistrcill and dove on the ground to intercept the pass. Davis quickly called timeout and sat in the driver's seat with 15 seconds left.
Olympus was forced to foul Sunderland as soon as the ball was inbounded and he made both free throws to give his team a 3-point lead. Olympus had one last chance to force overtime but sophomore Dutch DowDell's deep 3-point attempt failed as Davis held on for a 58-55 win.
"We feel fortunate to be able to grind that one out. I mean, Olympus is a really good team," Davis head coach Chad Sims said. "We knew it was going to be a tough matchup and it was great to go out there and compete."
Adding to the intensity of the game was the crowd of both student sections that ran more than 50 deep.
"The atmosphere in here was crazy and I had butterflies in my stomach before the game," Sunderland said. "It was a great environment and it felt great to be in a dog fight and pull out the win."
Sunderland finished the night with 21 points and seemed to play his best in the high-intensity game. Colby Sims also had a knack for rising up when his team needed him and hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter to score all but two of the Darts' points in the opening period.
"Rex is a competitor and we have gone through a lot of battles together, so I trust him," Chad Sims said. "Colby also had a good night and kept us in it early."
One of the biggest reasons Davis was able to crawl back into the game was its accuracy from the free-throw line. The Darts went 11 of 13 from the charity stripe while Olympus was 3 of 11. That, along with a few tweaks at the halftime break, allowed the Darts to mount a late comeback.
"We made some adjustments on the defensive end that helped us lock in and forced them to settle for tough 2s and limit the 3s," Chad Sims said.
The Titans led for most of the game in large part to DowDell and senior guard Luke Lowe's hot shooting. The two combined to hit seven 3-pointers and scored 17 and 12 points, respectively. Wistrcill added 16 points and six assists.
