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.”
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