After a passive offensive quarter of basketball in the third, Tooele boys came out strong in the fourth by scoring the first seven points of the period to propel themselves to their first Region 6 victory of the year by beating Woods Cross 54-50 Friday night.

Eleven offensive rebounds on their home court helped Tooele overcome a stingy Wildcat team that nearly hit enough 3-pointers down the stretch to make it close at the final buzzer.

Jacob Holt led Tooele with 17 points, with seven of those points coming in the fourth quarter. Spencer Bunn hit two 3-pointers on his way to 10 points in the game for the Buffaloes while Levi Vernon chipped in eight points in the victory.

Both teams started out the first by trading baskets but Tooele grabbed a 10-7 lead after a 3-point play from Holt and a 3-point bomb from Bunn for six straight Buffalo points with 4:08 to play in the first.

Woods Cross flashed their 3-point shooting ability in the first quarter by hitting three from beyond the arc, including a 3 from Steven Sperry with less than a minute remaining to give the Wildcats a 13-12 lead after the first.

Holt and Vernon each nailed 3-pointers for Tooele to help them out to an 8-2 run which gave Tooele a 22-17 lead with 2:38 left. That lead continued to expand after Paul Johnson buried a 3 near the end of the quarter that saw the Buffaloes with a 26-19 lead heading into halftime. Holt led all scorers in the half with 10 points at the break.

Tooele came out passive offensively to open the third quarter and it showed on the scoreboard with the Buffaloes only making three buckets for six points. Fortunately for Tooele, the defense stepped up in the offense’s absence and held Woods Cross to only nine points.

The Wildcats did cut the Tooele lead down to 32-28 heading into the fourth thanks to a 6-0 run to open the second half, which was capped with a offensive rebound and put back by Cory Gerrard.

“We were too passive in the third quarter and Woods Cross is too disciplined of a team to let us get away with that,” said Tooele coach Ray Brazier. “We just told the players to attack more in the fourth and we started hitting our shots out there.”

Tooele came out in the fourth and staked claim to the final period by scoring the first seven points. Bunn scored five of those points which included a 3-pointer to give the Buffaloes a 39-28 lead with 6:52 remaining.

Woods Cross did answer back with six straight points, which was sparked by a strong post bucket by Mark Evans to cut the Tooele lead down to 39-34. Andy Grondahl came right down the court and nailed a 3-point shot with 4:35 remaining that shot out a little of the air from the Woods Cross comeback.

Tooele made 10-of-13 from the foul line in the final quarter and they needed all of them the way that Woods Cross’ Zach Hunsaker was shooting from the outside. Hunsaker sank two 3-pointers in the final 17.5 seconds to keep it close but Tooele shot well enough to hold on for the four-point victory.

“We have some pretty mentally strong kids on our team that have good characters,” Brazier said. “The players don’t want to let each other down out on the court.”

The Buffaloes, now 1-1 in Region 6, will host highly-touted Olympus tonight at 7 p.m.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com