12:00 AM, Jan. 14, 2012
| HURRICANE - Hurricane knew it couldn't lose ground to Region 9 standings leader Desert Hills after losing Wednesday to Cedar.
The Tigers kept their sights on the region title with a 54-53 with at home, it wasn't easy.
Hurricane (2-2 region, 8-4 overall) and Desert Hills fought back and forth throughout a tight contest, each establishing leads but never more than six points.
Late in the fourth quarter, Desert Hills (4-1, 12-2) went ahead 51-46 after Tyler Ott (13 points) drained a deep 3-pointer with three and a half minutes remaining in the game. The Tigers answered by going on a 6-0 run, and regained the lead 52-51 with 1:37 on the clock.
However, Thunder's Mike Needham hit a 16-foot jumper and Desert Hills went back up by one point with 53 ticks left.
After that, it became a frenzied pace of free-throw attempts - mostly missed - and hard rebounds.
Benson Rich of Hurricane went to the line with 32 seconds left and with huge pressure. He proved to be the best executing shooter from the charity stripe of the night.
Rich hit both free throws to give Hurricane the lead for good.
"You just got to relax and put em in," Rich said. "I just focused on making them, and I made them."
In the remaining half minute, Desert Hills ended up missing three field goal attempts, and the Tigers missed two free throws, magnifying Rich's shots in their worth.
"We're certainly grateful that he could hit those, other kids weren't able to do that for us," said Hurricane coach Brian Vaifanua. "That allowed us to keep some momentum. At that point, it was just a total battle going either way, very critical, very critical."
Hurricane's Boston Gubler (26 points, 12 rebounds) had a monster game and said the team was clear in thought, knowing they could not afford to lose two region games in a week.
"We had a really good practice yesterday (Thursday), just worked on pounding it in, taking it in, finishing with contact," Gubler said. "We knew if we didn't come out and play like that, we wouldn't have a chance."
It was easy to see how excited the Tigers' team was afterwards in defeating the No. 1 3A team.
"It's as good as it gets," Gubler said. "It's a win at home, against the region leader. This was a win we needed, we needed it bad.
"And the fact that the game came down to the wire, and it was so exciting, makes it that much for."
Desert Hills' Tyler Ott was exceptional in the second half, hitting four of five field goal attempts (three 3-pointers), showing a deep shooting ability and wooing the crowd.
Brandon Simister led the Thunder with 14 points and Mike Needham grabbed seven rebounds.
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