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Kearns • On a night filled with sloppy play, even the victors had an up-and-down performance, though Kearns coach Dan Cosby said he was not surprised.

But the ups were enough, particularly a 26-6 lead near the end of the first quarter, for the Cougars win 70-59 against visiting Hillcrest in a Region 4 boys' basketball game. It was the second loss of the campaign for the Huskies.

"It's the story of us, still. They just get selfish. That's us," said Cosby, sounding more like his team had lost than won. "They say, 'Oh, I'm going to get mine.'

In the end though, "I think they wanted it bad enough, so we prepared for it," Cosby said.

Kearns (8-5, 1-1), which started region play with a home loss to Olympus, scored the game's first 14 points. In that run, Mikey Hernandez found the range for a pair of 3-pointers while Journey Buba scored twice.

Hillcrest (9-2, 1-1), meanwhile, didn't get on the board until past the midway point of the opening quarter. But the Huskies made up ground with a 12-0 run in the second quarter as the free-flowing Kearns offense suddenly could only score off free throws, eventually taking a 32-25 lead at halftime.

"We were passing the ball, working the ball and we got good shots," Cosby said. "That's what we've been trying to instill in them, but it's still a work in progress."

The momentum swung in the hosts' direction for the third quarter as the Cougars, after an opening bucket to Hillcrest's Tyson Flores, then got baskets from Hernandez and Hershey Wada to get the margin back to 10, a gap that generally held forth for the rest of the game.

Stockton Ashby led Hillcrest with 17 points and seven rebounds, and John Villanueva added eight points. Three Huskies starters, including Ashby at the end of the third quarter, ended up fouling out.

David Andrew paced Kearns with 19 points while Cougars' sophomore big man Majok Kuath scored 10.

"I think Majok's the best player on our team because he gets the fundamentals, he keeps the ball high — he doesn't force a lot," Cosby said. "He just knows how to play the game. If I could get our guards to get him the ball, it would open them up for threes a little more." —

Kearns 70, Hillcrest 59

R Kearns' 26-6 lead dwindles to four before a final push into double-figures.

• David Andrew makes four 3-pointers and scores a game-high 19 points for the Cougars.

• Hillcrest loses for the second time this season.