Bronco boys basketball season comes to a close with loss in second round of 2A tourney

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School boys basketball team’s season came to a close on Saturday, February 17 with a tough 60-49 loss to #5 North Summit in the second round of the 2A Utah State Tournament.
The Broncos were slow out of the gate against the speedy, volatile Braves offense in Coalville, trailing 15-4 after one quarter and 32-12 at the half.
San Juan came to life in the second half to outscore their opponents 37-28 including 25-12 in the fourth quarter, but the deficit was too much to overcome.
Though the loss was a tough ending to the season the second half encapsulated the Broncos’ never-say-die attitude and their ability to remain in the fight through the final buzzer.
RJ Dalley led scoring in the last game of the year with 12 points including three three-pointers. Weston Jones scored ten off the bench, Anthony Done poured in seven, and Jagger Nieves added six.
Jake Ivins scored five points for San Juan, Keaton Ivins got four, Brigham Nielson three, and Justice Black scored two.
The Bronco defense did a great job neutralizing the Braves’ big man, Buck Sargent, for most of the game. But several other North Summit players contributed to the offensive effort as they adjusted to San Juan’s coverage.
The past week began with a state first-round matchup in Blanding against the Intermountain Christian Lions on February 14, which the Broncos won easily 82-39 to advance to the second round.
Four San Juan players scored in double digits in the win including Anthony Done with 21 points, Tripp Palmer with 18, Jake Ivins with 15, and Keaton Ivins with 11.
Brigham Nielson scored six points, Jagger Nieves added four, and George McNaughtan got three. RJ Dalley and Owen Adams rounded out the scoring with two points apiece.
Jake Ivins and Keaton Ivins scored the two three-pointers for San Juan. Keaton Ivins just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Jake Ivins and Anthony Done pulled down five boards apiece. Dalley, Palmer, and Nieves got four each.
The Broncos collected ten wins this season and finished with a 10-15 record, a solid first year for Head Coach Easton Nielson. One of the highlights was a 77-70 upset win over North Summit on January 12 in Blanding.
San Juan was the #12 seed in the 2A Utah State Tournament and fifth in Region 15 play with a 4-6 record. They were 7-5 at home, 2-9 on the road, and 1-1 in neutral locations.
Senior Anthony Done was the team’s leading scorer this season with 328 points in the 25 games for an average of 13.1 points per game.
He led the team with 149 rebounds (6.0 per game), 142 assists (5.7 per game), 79 steals (3.2 per game), and 20 blocked shots. He also hit 12 three-point baskets this season.
Fellow senior RJ Dalley was the second-leading scorer with 233 points (9.3 per game). He was far and away the strongest long-range shooter for the Broncos with 57 threes on the season. He pulled down 129 rebounds and collected 23 assists and and 20 steals.
Junior Jake Ivins scored 228 points for San Juan this season (9.1 ppg), hit four three-point baskets, grabbed 89 boards, and collected 81 assists and 29 steals.
Sophomore Tripp Palmer had an excellent year off the bench for San Juan this season with 180 points (7.8 ppg). He had 108 rebounds, 15 assists, 22 steals, 16 blocks, and five three-pointers.
Sophomore Jagger Nieves also had an excellent year off the bench and rounds out the top-five scorers with 170 points (6.8 ppg). He had 92 rebounds, 46 assists, 30 steals, and nine threes.
Senior Keaton Ivins contributed 109 points, 34 rebounds, 11 assists, 18 steals, nine blocks, and four threes. Senior Justice Black had 71 points and 58 rebounds this season.
Senior Brigham Nielson finished the year with 69 points, 49 rebounds, 31 assists, and 36 steals. Weston Jones scored 64 points and had 41 rebounds, 25 assists, 11 steals, and six three-pointers.
Junior Jaiten Knight had 31 points, 18 rebounds, and eight threes. Junior Owen Adams scored 15 points with four rebounds.
Sophomores Nash Jones, George McNaughtan, Cole Duke, and Baylor Nielson scored six, five, two, and one points respectively.
Following the conclusion of the season San Juan Head Coach Easton Nielson shared a number of thoughts on his first year via email.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think the last couple of days about our season as a whole and truthfully I am very pleased with many things,” he said. “We played a very difficult schedule and we competed well in those games.
“I certainly would’ve liked to turn a couple of close losses around and I definitely would’ve loved to make the final weekend in Cedar but I don’t define success based on things that aren’t in our control.
“Sometimes close games are lost to good teams. We were a handful of possessions away from having different results in a lot of those games but part of the journey this team had to go through was to learn how to win those critical possessions.
“We didn’t have quite the same depth in outside shooting as many of teams we played so we had to execute at a high level to give ourselves chances to win.
“We found a way to do that in some of the games and in others we still showed a need to be just a little smarter and a little sharper down the stretch.
“One thing that has me very excited is how much time we were able to get to our younger players. We played 9-10 players deep in about every varsity game and at the JV level we were also able to distribute quite a bit of game time to players we’re going to need next year.
“We may not have ended in Cedar but we played countless games this year that had an elevated amount of noise and intensity. That experience will benefit us greatly next year as we prepare to make a run.
“These guys got a lot of experience in our new offensive system and they will be that much more successful and confident in the year to come.
“I believe next year, with the right offseason, we can more depth in our offense and that will give us a chance to have a fun year.
“Finally, in terms of this year, I had an absolute blast. I love competing with these boys.
"I didn’t pursue the job to simply chase wins. I did it because my experience with basketball prepared me for the things I find most fulfilling in life, such as being a father and husband, working to succeed in my career, and serving people.
“Basketball as a sport provides an astounding amount of adversity in a myriad of ways. That adversity is really just an invaluable learning opportunity in disguise.
“I took the job of Head Coach so that someday when these young men look back at their experience with basketball, they can say they learned the same things I did from my experience in basketball.
“We competed hard this year. That naturally came with highs and lows, frustration and triumph. I’m proud that we were able to have all of those experiences together this year.
“Without a doubt we were much closer to being our best at the end of the year than when we started. That’s how I define success.”