BOX ELDER — The Box Elder girls basketball team bounced back from its most recent loss with a team effort win against Turner Friday, while the Box Elder boys kept their perfect record in tact, improving to 7-0, as they pulled away late for the win.
Box Elder girls 46, Turner 38
The Turner Tornadoes got out to a 5-3 lead in the first quarter, but that would be their only lead of the game. Ariel Gopher put in two 3-pointers shortly after as the Bears took the lead for good. Gopher and Taizj Henry combined for 20 points in the first half to give Box Elder a 22-13 lead at the break.
Turner’s Cassidy Grabofsky scored the opening basket in the third, cutting the deficit down to 7, but it never got closer than that. Aarianna Henry put in back-to-back 3-pointers for the Bears that sparked a run and gave them a 15-point lead. Turner got back within 10 on four separate occasions but could not get closer to give themselves a chance to win.
Turner’s Bridget Reed led all scorers with 19 points. Gopher scored a team-high 17 points in the win for Box Elder.
Box Elder boys 87, Turner 69
Turner’s Trent Billmayer came out of the gate got, knocking down two triples, which helped the Tornadoes build a 20-19 first-quarter lead. Turner started the second quarter on an 11-2 run that started with an and-one alley-oop to Ryan Doyle. Box Elder responded with a 14-0 run of its own sparked by its defense that led to a fast break dunk from Tracen Jilot. By halftime, the Bears held a 45-41 lead.
The Bears outscored Turner 19-13 in the third to build their largest lead to that point at 64-54. Turner's Tate Beck scored a layup in the fourth that cut the lead back down to four with just under six minutes on the clock. Box Elder took it one possession at a time and regained the double-digit lead and put the exclamation on the game with another dunk from Jilot.
Jilot led all scorers with 35 points off the bench. Taurie Stiffarm-Rosette finished with 21 and Matthias Blackbird added 18 for the Bears. Ryan Doyle paced the Tornadoes with 20 points, while Caleb Zellmer added 14 more.
