It's just another guy, the next guy stepping up and doing something to help the team. – Springville coach Justin Snell
OGDEN — A year after Olympus ended a decades-long state title drought, Springville followed suit Saturday night at Weber State — this time at Olympus’ expense.
In an epic 4A title game that went into double overtime — and in which both teams were in the driver’s seat to win before the second OT — Springville showed unsurpassed resiliency en route to the 81-79 victory to clinch Springville’s first state title since 1958.
Josh Elison clinched the victory with a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds left, and after Rylan Jones’ deep 3-pointer bounced off the side of the rim.
“If there’s anything that says what happened to this state tournament to this team — a little bit of luck with a lot of hard work, and it’s been fantastic that these guys don’t give up, they keep going no matter what,” said Springville coach Justin Snell.
The Red Devils didn’t give up down eight with 2:17 left in regulation, and they didn’t drop their heads after Olympus hit back-to-back 3-pointers at the end of the first overtime.
He told his team “this is destiny” after Seth Mortensen hit a rainbow 3-pointer from the top of the arc to tie the game at 65-65 at the buzzer. And when destiny didn’t quite play out in overtime thanks to missed free throws and two late 3-pointers by Olympus’ Travis Wagstaff, Snell had more calming words for his team.
“We just told our guys to be themselves; come down here, find a great shot, if it goes in great, if not, go play some defense. We really tried to stress to be themselves, and I’m sure glad it worked out,” said Snell.
After both teams scored 12 points in the first overtime, possessions in the second overtime were much longer. Elison gave Springville the 79-77 lead with a steal and layup with two minutes remaining, and then after turnovers by both teams, Jones stepped up and tied the game with a pair of free throws with 17 seconds remaining.
Without any timeouts, Springville calmly ran its offense and Elison drew the foul as he drove into the lane. He sank both free throws to clinch the title.
Elison led Springville with 28 points, and was instrumental in getting underdog Springville out to the perfect start.
In the semifinals the night before, the senior scored 13 of his team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter as the Red Devils pulled away from Hillcrest for the victory.
Elison scored 12 points in the first half against Olympus on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range to give Springville the 31-26 halftime lead. He hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second quarter to give Springville its largest lead of the game at 24-13.
“It’s huge for us all the way around, because then we don’t have to do things we’re unaccustomed to. We can be patient, we can take our time, we can work for great shots. Where if we’re on the other end, you’ve got to push a little bit, which isn’t who we are,” said Snell.
Considering Olympus rallied from 25 down in the first half against Corner Canyon in the semifinals the night before, a five-point deficit paled in comparison. In fact, when Olympus beat Timpview for the state title in 2016, it trailed by nine at the half before rallying for the win.
As expected, Olympus came storming back in the third. Jeremy DowDell hit a pair of 3-pointers and Jones added another to chip away at the lead, and then with 12 seconds left in the quarter, Matt Lindsey sank two free throws to give Olympus a 44-42 lead — its first lead since 2-0.
In the fourth, Spencer Jones converted a three-play early for the Titans, and then followed on the next possession with a baseline 3-pointer after two Titan offensive rebounds to push the lead to 50-44 with 6:13 left.
Olympus stretched the lead to 55-47 with 2:17 remaining, but Springville wasn’t about to go quietly. It’s the same fight it showed all tourney long.
“We’ve grown up that way. We’ve always been the smaller team growing up, we just have to work harder than everyone else. That’s we’ve done throughout the tournament, we never give up,” said Mortensen.
Quarterfinal hero Bennett Hullinger hit back-to-back 3-pointers to trim the deficit to 57-53. Over those final 81 seconds, Olympus made six trips to the free-throw line but only made 8 of 12. That left the door open for Springville, which got a huge 3-pointer from Elison with 24 seconds left, and another from Seth Mortensen at the buzzer to force overtime.
“It was awesome. Seeing it go through the bottom of the net, looking over and seeing all the bench going crazy, I just love it,” said Mortensen.
It was Mortensen’s only 3-point attempt of the game, and he wasn’t even where he was supposed to be.
“It’s just another guy, the next guy stepping up and doing something to help the team,” said Snell. “Seth was supposed to be in the corner, I don’t know how he ended up at the top, but he made a play and he made a decision and we love it.”
Olympus' Jones led all scorers with 29 points in the loss, including making 11 of 12 from the line in the fourth quarter and overtime.
4A All-Tournament Team
MVP — Josh Elison, Springville
Andrew Slack, Springville
Bennett Hullinger, Springville
Rylan Jones, Olympus
Matt Lindsey, Olympus
Jeremy DowDell, Olympus