Prep boys' basketball: Moore leads Sky View past Murray

Murray • Jalen Moore waited anxiously for every missed shot.

With Murray struggling to find its touch from outside, Moore and the rest of the Sky View Bobcats wasted no time turning rebounds into buckets. The Bobcats (10-2) did nearly all of their damage in transition Friday night, en route to a 56-47 win over the Spartans.

"They were shooting a lot of 3-pointers, so there were long rebounds," Moore said. "We just tried to be in position and run."

Moore, a senior headed to Utah State next season, led all scorers with 27 points. But Sky View coach Kirk Hillyard credited his star's effort on the other end of the floor, where his long arms bothered Murray's perimeter players, for keying the victory.

"For Jalen, it all starts with his defense," Hillyard said. "That gets him his offense."

With Moore blanketing him, Murray deep-threat Dylan Ross hit just one shot from beyond the arc and had just 5 points when he fouled out of the game with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Spartans senior leader Chase Topham missed Friday's contest with mono. In his stead, coach Jason Workman relied heavily on 6-foot-11 center Nate Aland for offense.

Aland finished with 14 points, but Sky View's fast-break attack left the big man often trailing behind the pack in the second half of the game.

"That's when we play our best basketball. It's fun that way, too," Ty Nielsen, who scored 12 points, said about Sky View's transition game. "It got [Aland] tired. That was kind of the plan."

Murray (6-6) continues to be a team with potential — a 6-11 center in Aland and a number of deep threats — but has struggled to find wins lately. The Spartans have lost four straight games.

"The seniors haven't stepped up," Workman said. "We just don't have that chemistry right now."

The Spartans did get good play out of freshmen Ryan Topham, who scored seven, and A.J. Hodges, who finished with 10 points off the bench.

Murray took a one-point lead into the intermission.

But the Bobcats outhustled the Spartans after the break, outrebounding them and getting to many of the loose balls first.

It didn't hurt Sky View that Moore also caught fire.

The senior scored 13 points in the third quarter, including two when, with his back to the basket, an unexpected pass ricocheted off his hands and kindly through the net.

"When that went in, I didn't know what to do. Their fans didn't know whether to cheer," Moore said. "I thought, 'If that's going in, I'm kind of feeling it this half.'"

afalk@sltrib.com

Twitter: @aaronfalk —