BOUNTIFUL — You don’t need an actuary or a statistician to tell you that teams will typically play better on their home court.

There are many reasons why. The team doesn’t have to take a long bus ride, they are familiar with the gym, the hoops, and even the dead spots on the floor.

But perhaps the thing that makes the home court an advantage are the fans.

The Logan Lady Grizzlies found out on Tuesday night just how much of an advantage the Bountiful Lady Braves have at home.

A fired up crowd got behind the team from the opening tip and didn’t let up until the final buzzer. It helped the Braves cruise to an easy 54-41 win.

All night long, as the teams would enter the court after a break in the action, they were met with loud cheers. The Logan players clearly looked intimidated by the noise.

Each time a Bountiful player shot a 3-pointer, the crowd got anxious in anticipation. Each time one swished through, you would have thought the roof was going to blow off.

Sharp shooting Abby Wilson helped the Braves get ahead early. The senior wing drained four 3-pointers as the Braves took a 39-21 lead at half time.

In the second half, the Braves did not allow the Grizzlies to get back into the game. The Braves were able to run the clock down with their offense, but also remained aggressive at both ends of the floor.

The only drama remaining in the game was when Logan guard Serena Herrera found herself open off an inbound pass. She calmly drained a 3-pointer in front of some quickly-closing Brave defenders and the Grizzlies looked like they had some life.

However, it was too little, too late, as the Bountiful defense prevented the Grizzlies from scoring for the rest of the game, except for a baseline jumper as time was expiring.

The Braves were led by Taylor Boroson who scored 19 points. Wilson chipped in with 16. Jenny Skedros and Kennedy Merrick helped balance things out with eight and six points respectively.

The Grizzlies had two main scorers in the game. Lauren Mott led the way with 18 while Brittany Lamborn had 15. The rest of the team had eight points combined. The Braves solid defense made sure that the Grizzlies attack was minimized.

This was Bountiful’s third straight win, and each of them has been in blowout fashion. The schedule now gets considerably more difficult. The Braves will have to leave the home crowd behind as they head down I-15 to battle the defending 4A state champion Springville Red Devils.

Springville has had a solid start to their season, going 2-1 so far as they look to defend their title. On Tuesday night, the Red Devils destroyed their arch-rivals from Spanish Fork. The Braves will need to give this one everything they have got.

Tip off is at 7 p.m. Friday in Springville.

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