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In a 20-year coaching career, Skyline's Derek Bunting has seldom if ever employed a zone defense.

But, with his struggling 4-7 Eagles facing archrival, top-ranked and 10-1 Olympus in the league opener, he decided drastic measures were needed.

The result was a shocking 55-41 victory over the Titans before a raucous home crowd.

Bunting expected Olympus' star player Jake Lindsey, Utah's leading scorer, to play and figured the zone might be the only strategy that would give the young Eagles, who only have three seniors on their roster, a chance to win.

But Lindsey, who averages 29.4 points, 11 rebounds and six assists per game, is still recovering from an injury and did not play. The zone seemed to frustrate Olympus' normally deadly 3-point shooters.

"We are struggling to find an identity," said Bunting. "We figured Lindsey would play, so we worked on a zone the last three days. We used it a little against Park City, so we decided to give it a shot."

Skyline held Olympus to 18 first-half points and built up a 26-8 second quarter lead behind the play of guards Austin Stevenson and Alex Meldrum, who finished with 18 and 17 points, respectively.

But Olympus is too good not to put up a fight. With Skyline's two tallest players in foul trouble and the Titans putting up a ferocious full-court press, Olympus used four turnovers to fight back to within eight points late in the third quarter.

"We had a couple of turnovers but we kept fighting," said the 5-foot-10 Stevenson. "We were fired up to play the number one team."

The Titans held Olympus to 11 points in the fourth quarter as senior John Cronin hit five key free throws to secure the upset.

"We had to settle down against the press and take care of the ball," said Bunting.

And that was good enough for Skyline to win.

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