For the better part of six minutes Thursday, Payson seemingly had the Dee Events Center all to itself for its 4A state semifinal with county rival Provo. However, the occupation proved short-lived as the Lions eventually surrendered a 13-0 advantage and dropped a 65-51 verdict to the top-ranked Bulldogs.
"I wondered when we'd show up," said Provo coach Craig Drury, who starts two sophomores and has few players with previous state experience. "I don't think they were afraid of Payson. They were just leery of the game."Drury used two timeouts - the second to send a message - during the disastrous start.
"We questioned their courage a bit," he said. "To see if they wanted to play or just go home."
Provo responded with a 20-5 run to knot the score late in the second quarter before settling for a 26-24 halftime deficit.
"We took the first quarter off," said Drury. "Payson is our friend. I guess we have to be nice to them or something."
While the Bulldogs may have been kind to the Lions, the injury bug wasn't. Just prior to the intermission, Payson senior center Lincoln Taylor turned an ankle - he returned for the second half, but just wasn't the same.
"I don't want to make excuses, but that hurt. He just physically wasn't able to do anything," said Payson coach Dan Lunt, who watched Taylor go scoreless after 10 points in the first two quarters. "Provo played a great second half. They did what they needed to do to win the ball game."
And it all began with full-court pressure.
After giving up a 3-pointer - drilled by Payson scoring leader Jared Nielsen who finished with 19 points and hit five treys - to open the half, Provo used a 19-3 run to seize control of the contest. Senior Kris Cox paced the spurt with 11 of his game-high 23 points.
"(The press) was effective on us today. You have to give them credit," said Lunt. "We came out with a lot of confidence and Provo came out a little timid, but they executed better in the second half than we did."
The lead swelled to 16 points in the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs moved to within a game of a state-best 12th title.