Dugway and Wendover boys basketball teams will compete this week in the 1A State Boys Basketball Championships at Sevier Valley Center in Richfield.

Dugway will enter the tournament as the first place team from Region 18 with an undefeated record in region and a 20-1 overall record. The Mustangs' lone loss was to Green River at Green River.

Wendover enters the tournament as the No. 2 team from Region 18 with an 8-12 overall record.

In their final regular season game the Mustangs downed the Wildcats 48-37 on Wednesday at Dugway.

Wendover will battle Monticello (9-8) in the upper bracket of the tournament at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday while the Mustangs will face Tabiona (16-5) in the lower bracket at 5:30 p.m. that day.

The tournament is a 16-team double-elimination affair and a champion will be crowned on Saturday.

"We'll really need a full-team effort to go very far in this one," said Dugway coach George Bruce.

The Mustangs are still very young with only three seniors on the team.

Senior Preston Edwards and juniors Zach James, James Dettle and Dakota Wollett are strong inside with rebounding and defending while perimeter players junior Morgan Kartcher and sophomore Jackson Jones are quick and can get the ball inside. Kartchner and Jones are also good outside defenders when the Mustangs pressure the ball half-court and three-quarters court.

Kartchner is a top shooter who averages 18 points per game. He can also hit the deep ball. Against Wendover on Wednesday he hit four three-pointers including three treys in a three-minute span toward the end of the game. Kartcher has had games where he's hit five or six three-pointers.

Bruce said his team is in a difficult bracket with Whitehorse at 18-3, Tabiona at 16-5 and Duchesne at 12-8.

The veteran Dugway coach said that the competition in Region 18 does not prepare his team adequately for post-season play.

"While the teams down south are competing and beating up on each other every week, we're up here with not as much competition. If we have a stretch where we have Tintic, Wasatch Academy and Meridian we basically just have to show up to win. The tournament definitely brings us up to a higher level of competition," Bruce said.

mwatson@tooeletranscript.com