San Juan Broncos finding their identity, confidence as basketball regular season draws to close

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School boys basketball team had won three of their last four games going into their long road trip to Parowan and Kanab this past Friday and Saturday, January 23-24.
One of those wins was a very nice 59-58 road victory over Beaver on January 10 that included a basket from Tripp Palmer in the waning moments of the game.
The Broncos had beaten Parowan in a nail-biter 58-57 in Blanding in the teams’ first meeting right before the Christmas break.
The game was very similar this past Friday on the Rams’ home floor.
Parowan led 15-14 after one quarter, but San Juan rallied to take a slim 31-30 lead into halftime.
The teams played to an 11-11 tie in the third quarter, making the score 42-41 heading into the final frame.
The Broncos did an outstanding job holding the Rams off for a very exciting 52-50 win.
The victory gave San Juan some energy heading into their toughest test of the weekend against the #1-ranked team in the Utah 2A division, that being the Kanab Cowboys on Saturday.
The Broncos aren’t short on believing they have the ability to beat any team they come up against on any given night, and on Saturday afternoon it looked like the pieces were falling into place for a big upset.
San Juan led Kanab in a low-scoring affair for the majority of the game.
They held an 8-2 advantage after one quarter and a 19-14 lead at halftime.
But Kanab steadily rallied in the second half until they finally gained the lead in the fourth quarter.
San Juan battled hard but were unable to catch up, falling by a final of 41-35.
The loss was disappointing to be sure but Bronco Head Coach Easton Nielson likes where the team is at this point of the season.
“I love the way our team competed this weekend,” he stated.
“One more little step up and we’re going to be right where we want to be.
“For a lot of this season, especially early on, there was a feeling of, ‘I hope the best version of us shows up,’ and now it’s starting to feel like we know how to be a competitive team and we’re executing that in a lot of ways.”
The San Juan boys truly have no reason to hang their heads after taking one of the better teams in the state to the wire on Saturday.
The team is 11-9 on the season, ranked ninth in the 2A standings after the split this past weekend.
Only three games remain in the San Juan High boys basketball regular season and they’ll play two of those at home this weekend.
Tripp Palmer continues to lead the team offensively with 289 points, a 16.1 points-per-game average.
He also leads the team with 231 rebounds, co-leads with 14 blocks, has 36 assists, and 24 steals.
Jagger Nieves has come on in the second half of the season and has 208 points (12.2 ppg).
He leads the team with 64 assists and 35 steals and sports 101 rebounds, which is third.
Cole Duke has scored 165 points and is just below a double-digit average at 9.2 per game.
Duke has 117 rebounds, 33 steals, and 46 assists.
Baylor Nielson has 144 points for an average of eight per game.
He has 40 assists and 25 steals.
George McNaughtan rounds out the top five for the Broncos with 94 points, 97 rebounds, 14 blocks, along with 13 steals.
Cash Palmer has 72 points this season for San Juan, Brigg Palmer has 32, Beau Yeomans 30, Randall Black 12, Max Stearns six, and Andrew Nielson four.
The Broncos look to make some progress in the standings and build some postseason momentum this weekend.
On Friday January 30 the Broncos welcome the #12 Enterprise Wolves to San Juan High.
On Saturday January 31 the Broncos host the #14 ranked Beaver Beavers.
Both games will tip after the girls games, at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.
You can listen to the live broadcasts on Redrock 92 Radio at 92.7 FM or listen online at Redrock92.com.
As always you can watch the game live via a video stream on StreamUtah.Live.