MILLVILLE — When Logan High junior guard Jared Bagley drained a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to give his team a 47-42 lead, it looked like the Grizzlies might be on the brink of springing a mighty sweet upset.
But then Ridgeline High's dynamic Brenchley boys took over.
Sophomore guard Landon Brenchley and his big brother, senior Jaxon Brenchley, combined for 16 unanswered points in a decisive run to help give the Riverhawks a gritty 60-53 victory over the Grizzlies in a tense Region 11 showdown between the two neighboring Cache Valley rivals.
Landon Brenchley led the way with a game-high 19 points, 10 of which came in Ridgeline's key fourth-quarter surge. Jaxon Brenchley, a versatile 6-foot-4 playmaker who's often content to pass the ball to open teammates for easy shots, added 13 points — seven of them in the final period — along with a bundle of assists, a handful of rebounds and a couple of blocked shots.
He poured plenty of well-deserved praise to his little brother.
"He was making plays; he found himself open, he was running the floor and I kept finding him," Jaxon said of Landon. "People always try and key on me, but if people are gonna key on me, he's gonna exploit that and do what he does. He's a great player.
"He's getting more and more confident, he's playing better and better. He works hard and he's just a great kid. It's fun to play with him, it's way fun, and I'm excited and have fun playing with him every day."
On "Senior Night" in front of a standing-room-only crowd, senior forward Theron Wallentine added 11 points and senior Landon Jenson contributed 10 more as the Riverhawks, a strong first-year program, maintained their share of the league lead at 8-1 and improved to 16-4 overall with their eighth straight win.
Ridgeline coach Graydon Buchmiller credited his team for coming through in crunch time.
"I just think we came up with just a better play than we were getting in the first, second and third quarters," he said of the Riverhawks' game-changing spurt down the stretch. "We didn't really change anything, we just challenged our guys to step up and make plays.
"You've gotta give Logan credit. There's a ton of guys that just gave their all on that side, and it's a great coaching staff and they had a great game plan. Just really proud of our guys for sticking with it.
"... We've got a lot of unselfish guys, so give our guys credit — they really enjoy making that extra pass and playing for each other — and you saw that in the fourth quarter," Buchmiller said.
For Logan (11-11, 4-5), Bagley scored 17 points, while junior Cody Brimhall had 11 and sophomore guard Anthony McDade added nine more in the Grizzlies' valiant upset bid.
Coach Buchmiller, who coached Jaxon Brenchley for three years at neighboring Mountain Crest before they both made the move to first-year school Ridgeline for Brenchley's senior season, gave the young man a ton of credit for being the unselfish difference-maker that he is.
"He's been great for four years and to be able to coach him for four years like that as a starter," the Riverhawks' coach said. "And I think it really speaks to his character. He really could just take over at certain times and make it all about it him, but he's got bigger goals as well.
"He knows he's playing at the next level, and he would love to be a part of this with his team, his friends, his peers, guys he's grown up with, to go and accomplish something one last time as friends and buddies before he takes the next step. He's very unselfish, he's always been like that."
Though Ridgeline came away with the win, Logan brought its "A" game and gave the Riverhawks all they could handle all night long.
After Wallentine led Ridgeline to an early 9-3 lead, the Grizzlies battled back within 10-8 at the first stop. Joshua Jensen and Brayden Roberts then lifted Logan to a 24-23 halftime lead.
Ridgeline regained a five-point lead midway through the third quarter, but Bagley rallied the Grizzlies to a 44-42 edge entering the final period.
Then when Bagley's 3, his third of the night, made it a five-point spread in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, Logan's hopes momentarily soared and the sellout crowd got even more amped up.
But when the Brenchley boys joined forces to take over the game, and the Grizzlies went scoreless for more than six minutes, it was all over but the shouting.
Jaxon started the 16-0 run with a putback and Landon hit two free throws, followed by an old-fashioned three-point play to give Ridgeline a 49-47 lead. Jaxon then hit two free throws of his own; Landon scored a fast-break layup on a full-court assist from Jaxon, and Jaxon scored on a fast-break layup of his own.
Landon then hit three more free throws to make it 58-47 with 1:40 remaining to play, and thugh Logan cut the deficit to seven in the final minute, the Riverhawks' two-man assault was too much to overcome.
"It was such a great environment, I loved it," Jaxon Brenchley said. "We always try to lock down in the fourth quarter especially, we settle in more and try to create havoc. It's always a good time of night, we did a good job of that in the fourth.
"I just try to make the best play to win. Whether it's me taking over the scoring or drawing guys and kicking, getting rebounds, getting back, blocking shots, whatever it takes. I'm trying to win the game is what I'm trying to do."
Buchmiller appreciated the huge, vocal crowd as his team prepares for a 3A state tournament run.
"This is the biggest crowd we've had, for sure, and it was fun," Buchmiller said, pointing out that the players in the two programs are very familiar with each other. "... We're not at the level of Duke-North Carolina, but it certainly had that feel of just down Tobacco Road and letting those guys duke it out.
"All these games heading into state right now are all prepatory, and it was fun to have the crowd out like it was and give us a boost. We certainly needed that. Each game right now definitely has a 'state' feel for it and is good prep as we head into the state tournament."
EMAIL: rhollis@desnews.com