The State Tournament is officially underway for the Judge Memorial boy’s basketball team. On Saturday, February 17, the 10th ranked Bulldogs went up to Morgan and defeated the 7th ranked Trojans 59-49. After a bit of a slow start, being down as much as seven points late in the 2nd quarter, the Bulldogs were able to chip away and enter the half down only one. Judge took the lead coming out the half, and never looked back. JJ Apathjang scored 21 points on 8-19 from the field as the Bulldogs stepped up to the challenge and left Morgan with a win. The Bulldogs will travel down to Richfield to play the rest of the tournament, with their next game being a matchup with 2nd ranked Emery at Snow College.
The Bulldogs finished the season with a record of 10-13, finishing 10th in 3A, according to the UHSAA RPI. Judge has been widely considered the most talented team in 3A this season, but they had trouble stringing together wins early this season with so much turnover in the lineup from last season. Judge entered region play with a 5-12 record. The Bulldogs went 5-1 in region, securing the region title and ending the season about as strongly as they could have hoped.
Judge is led by two main scorers. The leading scorer on the team is Junior guard JJ Apathjang. Apathjang is considered one of the most talented players in the entire state, regardless of classification. He led the team with 18.6 points per game, to go along with 8.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists. He is joined in the backcourt by Senior guard Aaydan Saucedo. Saucedo has been the starting point guard for Judge since his freshman year. He eclipsed the 1000 career point mark this December at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas. He finished the season averaging 16.9 points per game. He finished third in the entire state in three-pointers per game with 4.0, and second in the state in total threes with 92.
The Bulldogs will travel down to Richfield on Wednesday and take on Emery at 12:50 pm at the Sevier Valley Center on the Snow College Campus. The last time Judge traveled to Richfield in the state tournament was 2021, when Coach Sanjin Kolovrat led his team to a 4th place finish in his first season as the head coach. Sanjin hopes to lead this team to the big game this season, and come home crowned as state champions.
