Tooele outscored Mountain View 34-26 in the final three quarters of the game Tuesday night in Tooele. The Bruins ambushed the home team in the first quarter by a score of 17-4. When you add the numbers it’s a 43-38 victory for Mountain View.

“We were getting open shots in the first quarter, unfortunately they weren’t going down. Another problem was we weren’t getting back on defense,” said Tooele coach Ray Brazier.

The first-quarter hole was just too deep for the Buffaloes to climb out of, but they made a valiant effort.

Tooele dropped behind by 15 after a Mountain View basket to start the second quarter, but the Buffs rallied. Jake Dalton drove the lane to score and was fouled for a three-point play. Then Tanner Stuart drove hard for a bucket and suddenly the 15-point advantage was cut to 10.

Tooele was starting to wreak havoc with the Mountain View offense with a trapping press and the Bruins called time-out. After the break in action, Matt Trussell swiped the ball, drove in and scored to make it 19-11 with 6:05 until intermission.

The Bruins countered late in the second quarter by going inside to 6-foot-8 inch center Scott Moake who scored the final six points of the first half to expand the Mountain View lead back to 14.

“At halftime we emphasized the importance of playing with confidence and believing we would come back and win, and the importance of continuing to play good defense,” the coach said.

Tooele kept pace with the visitors in the third quarter thanks to some tough man-to-man defense and hustle to gain possessions of loose balls. Dalton hit one of his two treys in the quarter and Matt Trussell fought hard to secure rebounds. Trussell also started to add some offense; he scored seven points on the night including a 10-foot jumper during the third. Still it was a battle to gain ground on the Bruins.

In the fourth Tooele caught fire on the offensive end.

Stuart opened the quarter with a trey and then Jordan Clemente outmaneuvered a defender inside, scored and was fouled. With the made foul shot he completed a three-point play and the Buffs were suddenly within nine with 5:18 remaining.

After a Mountain View basket, Trussell knocked down a 3-point shot from the top of the key to slice the Bruins’ lead to 35-27 with 3:55 left in the game. Then the volume went up in the gym with cheers from the home crowd when Taylor Hunt picked off a pass which led to a 3-point basket by Jake Dalton to make it 35-30 with 3:30 remaining.

Mountain View finally started to beat the press for a pair of scores, but the Buffs were still within victory range when Stuart sank a 3-pointer to make it 39-33 with two minutes remaining. With 1:08 left, Stuart scored his third three-pointer of the game and it was 39-36.

The Bruins kept the ball away from the Buffs while trying to preserve their slim lead and were successful. Tooele was forced to foul and Bruins hit two free throws and then an easy inside layup to ice the game.

“Trussell really responded well after the Provo game and Jake Dalton and Tanner Stuart helped us make a comeback with their shooting,” the coach said. Dalton has been playing extremely well in the past few games.

“He’s a force to be reckoned with. He’s solid at the point (guard) and a great set-shooter,” Brazier said.

Things were not going Tooele’s way even before the game started on Tuesday. The Buffs were given a technical foul during warm-ups because a player dunked the ball and it was spotted by an official. Mountain View hit the two technical foul shots and then were given possession of the ball to start the game. On the opening possession Tooele fouled and the Bruins made another foul shot for an early three-point advantage.

Either Tooele or Payson will earn its first region win on Friday when the Buffs host the Lions at 7 p.m. Both teams are 0-5 in region games.

The Tooele girls lost 80-33 against Mountain View on Tuesday and will host Payson at 5:15 p.m. on Friday.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com