CLASS 3A BOYS: Thompson hustles Pirates past Bulldogs, into state

Josh Thompson is already a champion cross-country runner.

On Saturday, he had the energy of a marathoner.

The Moapa Valley senior scored 15 points — far from his largest contribution of the night — as the Pirates knocked off arch-rival Virgin Valley, 47-37 to win the Class 3A Southern League tournament title at Durango.

Moapa Valley (15-11) advances to the state semifinals, which begin Friday at The Orleans Arena.

Thompson led a magnificent Moapa Valley defense that held the Bulldogs (15-10) to three second-half field goals — all in the third quarter.

And he did it while drawing the toughest assignment — defending Virgin Valley leading scorer Cameron Jensen.

“Josh has a battery that will go all night,” Moapa Valley coach Dallas Larsen said. “We were not going to let (Jensen) have an open shot all night.”

The Bulldog senior didn’t have many. He was 5 of 23 from the field and finished with 16 points. Jensen missed his last 11 field goal attempts.

Thompson wasn’t the only one to defend Jensen as the Pirates helped, communicating perfectly on defense.

“We focused on help defense,” Larsen said. “We weren’t letting them get to the basket. We just tried to force them to shoot jumpers, nothing but jumpers.”

Thompson added six points in the fourth quarter, on 6-of-7 free-throw shooting as neither team hit a field goal in the final 8:57 of the game.

Only Moapa Valley didn’t need to make one.

The Pirates staked themselves to an early 13-5 lead, and while it got close on many occasions, the lead never completely disappeared.

“That was big,” Larsen said. “We reminded them before the game that we had had one lead against (Virgin Valley) all year, and it was 6-5 in one game.”

Virgin Valley was within 27-25 on a pair of free throws by Tanner Tichenor with 4:55 to play in the third quarter, but Thompson scored six points during a 12-4 run that allowed the Pirates to take a 39-29 lead into the fourth.

Tichenor made two free throws with a minute left to get within 41-37, but the Bulldogs didn’t score again, and Thompson and Hayden Cooper combined to make six straight free throws to end it.

Cooper added 10 points and nine rebounds for Moapa Valley, which heads back to the state tournament after missing out last season.