Froggie-Kitten Contest

Timp Sports Weekly

January 8, 2013

Publisher's Message

This week's issue covers the Jan. 2 thriller that the Kearns Cougars, AKA the Kittens, hosted against the Lehi Pioneers, AKA the Froggies. Although the boys' basketball game was an exhibition contest, it was as physical as games between my University of Utah Utes and the BYU Cougars, AKA the Zoobies. The Jan. 2 game was quite riveting -- correction, ribbiting. As they say in Lehi, let's hop straight to that story.

Dean Von Memmott

Publisher

magnanovelist@gmail.com

Kearns Kittens Outlast Lehi Froggies 62-56 in Boys' Exhibition Game

By Dean Von Memmott

Timp Sports Weekly Publisher

In a non-league boys' basketball game at Kearns Jan. 23, the Kearns Cougars, AKA the Kittens, clawed their way to a 62-56 win over the Lehi Pioneers, AKA the Froggies.

The Kittens got a lot of firepower from Dayon "Night" Goodman, Bushman "Numbia" Ebert, and Darrion "K-Town" Brown through the course of the night.  The Kittens got their claws on the lead first via an Ebert jump shot;.

Lehi's Frankie Jackson answered it by putting a shot back into a hoop. Before the Froggies could hop ahead, Brown hit a go-ahead trey. Before long, the Kittens commanded a 7-3 advantage. Aided by a Chris Macula rebound shots, Froggie Cleveringa hopped rapidly with a steal that ended with him sinking a tying layup. Ebert broke the 7-7 with a trey. Despite efforts from Jackson and Jordan Peck, the Froggies couldn't leap ahead of the Kittens in the first quarter.

Lehi attempted to turn its situation around on rebounds from Tanner Nygren and Tanner Pittard in the second quarter, but the Kittens stayed narrowly ahead through the shooting of Hank "H-Rod" Rodriguez, Taylor "Needles" Martchiz, Jared "Big J" Anderson, Goodman, and Brown. McKale Downs and Peck's foul shooting as well as a Cleveringa jumper enabled the Froggies to narrow the Kitten lead to 18-16 in the second quarter. That was the closest Lehi could get to overtaking the Kittens. With Ebert getting really hot inside the paint in the first half's closing minutes, the second quarter ended with Brown dropping in a three-pointer a fraction of the second before the buzzer.

After Amone "Kiwi" Finau hit a free throw for the Kittens in the early second half, Macula hit a trey, but two straight Ebert layups extended the Kearns lead 39-30. Efforts by Jackson and Cleveringa prevented the Kittens from pulling more than 10 points ahead.

Late in the third quarter, Jackson got really hot in scoring, and he eventually tied the game at 41. However, Rodriguez sank a tie-breaking layup, and a Goodman set shot permitted the Kittens to take a 45-41 lead into the finally quarter.

That period saw Lehi unable to contain Goodman. He fried the Froggies both inside and outside the paint. Jackson and Cleveringa, though, managed to keep Lehi in the game. The Froggies got as close as 58-56 on a Cleveringa basket in the final two minutes. However, free throws from Goodman and Brown clutched the game for the Kittens,

Cleveringa led the Froggies with 28 points while Jackson added another 11, Peck eight, and Macula seven. Goodman led the Kittens with 18 while Brown and Ebert each posted 15 and Rodriguez 10.