RICHFIELD — Connor Bolles only got credit for five steals in Manti’s semifinal win over Enterprise.

But statistics could in no way capture all the little ways his defense changed the game.

“Connor did a great job,” said Manti head coach Devin Shakespear.

The Templars earned a 67-54 win over the Wolves. “We’ll have to see his deflections count, but he got his hands on 20 or 25 balls," Shakespear said of Bolles. "We forced 28 turnovers, and Connor had his hands on a lot of those that came out for steals.” The turnovers helped the Templars overcome a rebounding deficit, as the Wolves out-rebounded Manti 36-25.

“Our game plan was to not let their pressure in the backcourt force us into turnovers, not get caught up in the run and jmp, be sure that we didn’t allow them to out-execute us early,” Shakespear said. “The game plan was just to settle in and play good solid defense early, let the rhythm come, and then do what we kind of do — pick up the tempo a little bit and force some of those things we like to force.”

Like turnovers.

The Templars actually forced 29 turnovers and had 16 steals as a team. Bolles led that effort with five. He also led the team’s offense with 25 points, while Trevor Alderadded 16 points and Derek Wright finished with 14 points. Thomas McFarlane and Alder led the rebounding effort with six each.

The Wolves were led by Travis Dougherty, who had 16 points and six rebounds, while Koden Hunt added 12 points. Connor Phelps came off the bench and had a nice game with 10 points, eight rebounds, two assists and three steals.

Manti actually trailed 27-31 at halftime. Phelps hit a 3-point shot just before the half to give the Wolves the lead.

“We had some foul trouble,” Shakespear said of the first half.

“We got where we needed to get,” Shakespear said. “From there, we believe our legs are very strong and we can take advantage of some miscues.”

Manti came out in the second half and immediately worked to get the momentum back on its side. The widest gap was six or seven points until the final minute when the Wolves had to foul to try to get the ball back.

“We needed to stop the offensive rebounds,” Shakespear said of the effort in the second half. “Rebounding was a big thing.”

Enterprise’s press forced Manti to make an adjustment, but afterwards it got some easy buckets.

The first-year coach said he was looking forward to playing Emery in Saturday’s championship game. Not only do the two teams play a similar type of basketball, but they met in the preseason. In that game, played at the SVC center, the Spartans edged the Templars by a point.

“They play quick,” Shakespear said. “We play quick. … We’ll toss it up, get on the floor and we’ll find out.”

RICHFIELD — The Enterprise Wolves knew they faced a tough task if they wanted to upset the state’s top-ranked 2A team.

“We knew we had to play together as a team on that one,” said Enterprise head coach Larry Shurtliff after the unranked Wolves defeated the No. 1 ranked Eagles 55-46 in Thursday’s 2A quarterfinals at the Sevier Valley Center. “Layton Christian is a great team. They’ve proved it all season long. And we knew we had to play one of our better games, and we did. We went out and executed and did the things we needed to do.”

The victory came down, as it often does, to the smallest components of the game — a timely steal, a great pass and clutch free-throw shooting.

“Fortunately our shots were falling on the foul line a little bit,” Shurtliff said. “It takes a little bit of luck. These boys have been playing well all season long.”

The Wolves started fast and stayed with or ahead of the Eagles the entire game. They jumped out to a 12-8 lead, but the Eagles battled back, making it a one-point game at halftime with Enterprise leading Layton Christian 20-19.

The game could have belonged to either team, but the Wolves’ free-throw shooting was the difference in the game. The Wolves shot 27 free throws and made 22 of them. Layton Christian, on the other hand, only shot 16, of which it made 12.

Travis Dougherty led the Wolves with 14 points and five rebounds, and he was 6-of-6 from the foul line. Teammate Isaac Wallin added 12 points, including three 3-point shots. Both Koden Hunt and Ricky Ramosscored eight points and had five assists between them.

The Eagles were led by Taylan Barrett, who scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Gerardo Munoz added nine points, while Igor Torres finished with eight points and four rebounds.

“Give Layton Christian a lot of credit,” Shurtliff said. “They have some superb athletes and they’re well-coached. Bobby Porter had them ready to go. Some of their shots didn’t fall, some of ours did. So it was a wonderful thing.”

Shurtliff said it was the contributions from each player throughout the game that made the difference.

“I was really pleased with everybody who played on our team,” he said. “Isaac Wallin, Ricky Ramos and I thought we had great bench play. We got a lot of good minutes, and we had some people in foul trouble.”

He said the Eagles’ athleticism was the squad’s toughest challenge.

“They’re physical and they can get to the rim,” he said. “We were just trying to help ball-side and keep them from the rim. That didn’t work a lot of times. They made it to the rim. They’re athletic, and we tried to limit them to one and out. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn’t.”

He said the core of the Wolves’ team played in last year’s state championship game, losing to Wasatch Academy.

“They know the mental toughness that it takes,” Shurtliff said. “I thought we played really well and we played team ball. We did what we needed to do. The mentality was there.”

The Wolves will face Manti in the 2A semifinals Friday at 9:10 p.m. at the Sevier Valley Center.

I've covered a few games in Enterprise this season from volleyball to boys and girls basketball, and I have to say that the atmosphere at Enterprise High School is the best in Southern Utah.

The smaller gymnasium certainly helps the place be a little louder, and I won't overlook the fact that last Wednesday's game was a rivalry between the Wolves and Parowan Rams. But just as many people attended the Enterprise-Parowan game last Wednesday as they did the Cedar-Dixie game Friday.

I had major tunnel vision 10 years ago at Snow Canyon High School. I always thought the Warrior fans inside The Jungle were the rowdiest and had the most moxie. They're still great, sure, but so is everybody else.

The volume inside the Enterprise High School gym — Do we call it the Wolves' Den? Enterprise students, help me out. Tweet at me and tell me what I'm supposed to call your gym — wasn't necessarily loud, but the ambiance was fun.

Last week's game against Parowan was the White Out game, so the students were color-coded and well entrenched in watching the action and cheering. And compared to the two loud Parowan dads sitting behind me who complained about everything down to the way the referees tied their shoes, the Enterprise fans were positive and just wanted to watch basketball and support their hometown players.

The majority of the credit goes the Enterprise High School Jazz Band. The band's song selection was top notch — Grade A. I'm sad I don't remember what the students played, but I remember loving the choices. I tweeted at 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 4, "The song selection by the Enterprise pep band is wonderful." I'm kicking myself for not remembering the specific songs. The kid who played drum set was incredible.

When it was time to get loud, however, the Enterprise fans stepped up. Isaac Wallin and Koden Hunt knocked down a pair of 3-pointers against Parowan in the third quarter to give the Wolves the lead going into the fourth quarter on Wednesday. The fans got loud and rocked the gym, and it matched the spirited frenzy of any Region 9 game.

The most important thing about Enterprise, though, is that it seems like a happy place 100 percent of the time. Granted, I've only visited four times since August. But if first impressions were all that mattered, then Enterprise High School passes the test of being the friendliest school in Washington County.

With two girls basketball games to wrap up the regular season — and the team needing to win at least one of those to make the playoffs — the EHS gym is sure to be a spectacular atmosphere to watch basketball this week.

Follow Richard Briggs on Twitter, @BriggsRich.

Beating Layton Christian #1 ranked team in the state & Beaver

Senior NIght

State Basketball First Round Wolves Beat North Sevior