San Juan High boys basketball team sweeps Wasatch Front Invite

It has been a fast and furious start to 2020-21 for the San Juan High School boys basketball team. When they returned home from their trip to the Wasatch Front Invitational this past weekend they had just finished their sixth game in nine days to open the year.

They’ll add three more games this week for a grand total of nine games in just a two-week period. It was a fairly pleasing weekend for the Broncos at the Wasatch Front Invite.

They swept all four of their opponents at the event, posting an 84-67 win over American Heritage, an 80-48 win over American Prep West Valley, a 62-47 win over Draper APA, and a 99-24 victory over Maeser Prep.

The four wins are obviously a positive for San Juan, but there was a bit of a sour note on the weekend when junior Cooper Black went down with a severe ankle sprain which will likely keep him out of action through this week at least.

But the injury allowed other Broncos to step up and fill the void, specifically Jayden Black who scored 36 points on the weekend, averaging nine points per game.

Ladd Ivins led the way at the Invite with 74 points, an average of 18.5 points per game. Nate Grover collected 72 points (18 ppg), Jace Palmer scored 53 (13.3 ppg), and Jensen Grover got 40 (10 ppg).

Five more Broncos factored in the scoring over the weekend, including Bronson Snyder with 19 points, Easton Bethea with ten, Jerzy Nieves with eight, Collin Baker with six, and Ian Johnson with five.

Other than the injury to Black, which actually occurred during warmups before the first game of the weekend, San Juan Head Coach Travis Black said he was pleased with the tournament.

“The starting five just did a great job,” he explained. “We got some balanced scoring and they were sharing the ball well.”

Black said the defense played well when they needed to also. And he pointed out a silver lining to the injury to Cooper Black.

“You never know who may go out this year, so it’s nice to get some of the kids who may not get as much time [into games] and start to build some of that chemistry,” said Coach Black.

San Juan is in for a bit more of a challenge this week. Uintah brought a solid team into the SJHS gym on Tuesday, December 15 and the Real Salt Lake Academy Griffins come to town Wednesday, December 16.

David Evans, former head coach at Wasatch Academy, has taken over at RSLA and is in essence creating another Wasatch Academy, which consisted of a group of solid international athletes.

That game should be a fun one, set to tip at 4:30 p.m. and you’ll hear it live on Redrock 92.7 FM and streaming with video online at PictureItPalmer.com.

San Juan finishes the week with a rivalry matchup in Monticello that you can also hear broadcast live.