Just got home from the vaunted Lone Peak vs. Brighton high school basketball match-up, and it was ugly. As a Brighton alum, I felt obligated to get to a game or two this year and this was the marquee contest thus far. Lone Peak touted a possible 6 D-1 players, while Brighton had arguably the best player in the state in Jace Tavita and a very capable supporting cast headlined by Ali Langford. It seemed like a great match on paper, but then the game started. A couple thoughts from the game:

Lone Peak’s size was impressive, their starting front line goes 6’7”, 6’8” and 6’11”, Brighton’s tallest player is only 6’6”. They use this size well when they drop into their zone, they dare you to shoot threes and deflect a lot of shots in the paint. Although they were very jumpy, they had a couple of guys with 4 fouls and a few with 3. The smaller Brighton players were able to pump fake a lot and get to the line, although…

Brighton cannot shoot free throws. They shot below 50% (15-31) and their two big time players, Tavita and especially Langford, couldn’t make one to save their lives. It’s alarming when the player who has the ball in his hands the most cannot make a big free throw, couple that with Lone Peaks 16-21 from the line and you could see the loss coming.

There were a few local commits in the game, both Tavita and Lone Peak’s Josh Sharp have committed to Utah, with Tyler Haws still undecided. Tavita played pretty well, you could definitely tell that his year in North Carolina had helped, but he still isn’t a great outside shooter and I was under whelmed with his fundamentals (he can’t finish with his left hand yet, he will need to develop that to be effective on the next level). Sharp played poorly, he was in foul trouble, but he was a high energy-high athleticism guy. He had the play of the night with a vicious one handed dunk during the second half that may have broken the crowd. Haws played very well, his athleticism is really lacking but his basketball IQ is high and he allows the game to him. He is also a dead eye shooter who knows when and how to take over; he scored most of his 29 in the second half.

The atmosphere was awesome, the Brighton gym was packed and the crowd was rocking, too bad that the Bengals had to run into the complete buzz-saw that is the Lone Peak Knights. They just had too much for the talented Brighton team who was only able to keep up with them for the first half. You don’t really realize how well they are playing if you don’t pay attention to the scoreboard, it doesn’t seem like they are stretching out their lead until you notice that they are up by 20. They have to be the favorite to win state this year.

Now for some quickie Wildcard Weekend Picks:

Washington at Seattle;
With the way that they are playing right now, with inspiration and reverence for their fallen friend, I cannot pick against the Skins right now. They’ll win 24-21.

Jacksonville at Pittsburgh;
No team in NFL history has beaten Pittsburgh twice in Pittsburgh in one season, but the Jags may very well be the third best team in the league, and they do two things really well: run the ball and play defense. Sounds like an easy pick to me, Jags win 31-17.

NY Giants at Tampa Bay;
The Giants played admirably against the Pats last week, and the Bucs rested players and lost to Carolina. Ronde Barber’s comments aside, the Giants are very inconsistent, but then again so are the Bucs and I believe that the Giants have a better roster, so I’ll give them the edge. Giants win 21-14.

Tennessee at San Diego;
The Titans are banged up, so much so that they may actually start ..gulp.. Kerry Collins. Meanwhile, the Chargers are playing well with LT dominating again. The Titans inept offense will find it hard to move the ball against the stingy Chargers’ D. SD wins 38-10.