ST. GEORGE - With his team's chances slipping away fast, Hurricane boys basketball coach Gordon Dotson called a timeout and implored his team to pick up its defense in the final nine minutes of regulation.

The Tigers responded. Throw in a terrific performance at the free-throw line in overtime, and you have the major ingredients in a 64-57 win at Dixie on Wednesday night.
By escaping The Hangar with a victory, Hurricane improves to 5-2 in league play and 13-3 overall.
"We lost the game against Snow Canyon because of free throws," Dotson said. "We won this game because of free throws."
The Tigers made 8 of 11 from the stripe in the extra session, including a pair on old-fashioned three-point plays that buried the Flyers.

Zach Sorenson (10 points) hit two at the charity stripe to give Hurricane a 55-50 lead with 1:37 left in the overtime, but Reber responded with a runner 11 seconds later.
The Tigers moved the ball around well on the ensuing possession with Sorenson handling it most of the time. Without a shot clock in high school basketball, conventional wisdom tells you the Tigers were going to either turn the ball over or get fouled. But when Sorenson saw Dixie (2-5, 5-10) was reluctant to put him on the line, he took advantage and made a beeline for the hoop. He was fouled and made the shot.

"They were just overplaying a lot, denying the pass, so a lot of the drive lanes were open," Sorenson said. "We took advantage of that because there was no help defense."
Mike Sharp, who had a team-high 17 points for Dixie, followed with a 3-pointer to make it a one possession game again, but Jaden Seely (game-high 19 points) and Hurricane caught the Flyers napping.

Seely streaked down the floor, caught a pass and was fouled by Sharp - his fifth - as he hit the bucket to increase the lead to five. Following Sorenson's lead, Seely dropped in the freebie to essentially seal Dixie's fate.
"In that situation you want to keep attacking and see if you can get to the basket," Dotson said. "We didn't want to sit back."

Defense is what got Hurricane back into it. Trailing 39-31 late in the third quarter, the Tigers buckled down and countered Dixie's 10-0 run with an 8-0 spurt of their own. The Flyers didn't score their first point of the final stanza - a Sharp free throw - until there was 3:19 to go.
That touched off a seesaw battle for the rest of regulation, which included seven lead changes.
Sharp hit a turnaround in the lane with 37 seconds remaining to give Dixie a brief one-point lead, but Anderson Rich countered with a 3-pointer from the left corner 12 seconds later. Without any hesitation, Seth Lasater hoisted away from 19 feet - just inside the 3-point arc - to tie the contest.
Seely had a chance to win it in regulation as he got good position in the post, but his shot rimmed out as the horn sounded.

The loss was made even worse for Dixie considering Pine View's surprising demolition of Snow Canyon. As it stands, Dixie is 2 1/2 games behind 4A Region 9 leader Snow Canyon, while Pine View is 1 1/2 games up on the Flyers. The top two teams qualify for the postseason.
Hurricane's Anderson Rich had 14 points, including 10 of those in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Dixie's Dallen Reber had 13 points.