BOUNTIFUL -- Remember the story of the Titanic and Captain Smith? Everything was smooth for Titanic and Smith as it made its way effortlessly across the Atlantic Ocean and then the mighty ship hit an iceberg. After it struck the iceberg everything that was going great quickly turned into a disaster and the ship sank. Viewmont basketball coach Jeff Emery must have felt like Captain Smith Tuesday night. After his team cruised to a 21-8 first quarter lead over Clearfield, the Vikings' ship hit its own iceberg named Falcon Cameron Evans. And like great unsinkable Titanic, the Vikings' ship began to sink until it was completely gone in a 45-40 Region 1 loss. Evans finished the game with 16 points. "This was a frustrating loss," Emery said. "To jump out 21-8 and then score only 19 points in the next three quarters is never going to get the job done."

After that first quarter where everything seemed to work for Viewmont, Clearfield made some defensive adjustments that caused problems for the host team.

"They made the right adjustments and it hurt us," Emery said. "They went into a triangle and two and with their big guys (three players standing taller than 6-5), we just didn't make good choices on offense and started turning the ball over."

But even after suffering through the middle section of the game, Viewmont still held to a 35-31 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

"We only scored five points in the fourth and only 14 points in the entire second half," Emery said. "They held us scoreless in the last three minutes of the game."

The score was tied 40-40 with two minutes to play when Clearfield finished off Viewmont.

"This was one of those games where you just shake your head and it will show what we are made of now that it's over," Emery said. "I told the guys after the game that we'll see what we have inside over the next few days. We can either learn from this experience and come out and play hard Friday night (against Weber) or we'll let this ruin us.

"Knowing the kinds of kids we have on this team I expect them to work hard in practice these next couple of days and that we'll come out and play hard against Weber."

The loss slipped Viewmont deeper into second place in Region 1 behind undefeated Davis, but still have a one game lead over Clearfield.

"The game against Weber is important because we want to hang on to second place," Emery said. "We're in second and if Davis holds service against the teams in Region we'll control our own destiny.

"We need to come out and do out job."

The Vikings were led by Davis Emery's 16 and Tommy Barrett's 12.

sschulte@davisclipper.com