A winning streak and a winning record for Titan boys’ basketball

The Olympus boys’ basketball team saw its seven-game winning streak end when Skyline defeated them on Jan. 27, 59-52. Despite outscoring the Eagles in the third quarter, Olympus was unable to lead throughout the game. The Titan’s region record is now 3-1.

“Things are going pretty well,” coach Matt Barnes said. “I thought we did well to get through the preseason with a 7-4 record, considering the very hard schedule we had. We played a lot of good 4A and 5A teams.”

The Titans’ winning streak began with a narrow 60-57 win over Bountiful on Dec. 30 and continued with an even closer 66-65 victory over Davis Jan. 3. Olympus went on to defeat Taylorsville 84-57 Jan. 6, Box Elder 73-63 Jan. 10 and Hillcrest 83-53 Jan. 13.

“Will Cannon [senior] is doing a nice job for us, and had a couple of big games,” Barnes said. “He scored 30 points against Taylorsville. He’s good on defense and causing turnovers.” After 13 games, Cannon was averaging over 15 points and seven rebounds a game.

“Jake Bengtzen [senior] is also doing a great job for us,” he said. “In the Hillcrest game, he scored 12 points with four three-pointers, five steals and nine assists. Junior Jaren Jones is coming off the bench and giving us a big lift. He has good hustle in rebounding and scoring. Junior Coulson Harding scored 12 points in the Box Elder game.”

Olympus played Murray Jan. 31. They will be at Hillcrest Feb. 3, will host Westlake Feb. 7 and Herriman Feb. 10, and will end the regular season at Skyline Feb. 17 and at home against Murray Feb. 21.

“We’ve got a tough stretch ahead of us,” Barnes said. “We’ll be playing some good teams—no easy games. We’ll have to be ready to play or get beat. But it’s an exciting time. We just have to keep it going.”

The 4A state playoffs begin Feb. 27 and conclude March 3 at the Maverick Center in West Valley City.