Springville’s Jake Nadauld may have stole the show scoring 50 points, but it’s Murray that’s marching on in the 5A state tournament.
Nadauld was remarkable in the 5A second round on Friday, his scoring including seven 3s and 11 of 12 shooting from the foul line, but the senior’s heroics still weren’t enough to overcome the versatility of the higher-seeded Spartans.
While Springville had one player score in double figures, Murray had four led by Chudi Anosike, the state’s leading scorer who scored 33 points in the win.
“Yeah, they have one guy go off and we’re trying different things and can’t do anything about it, but we have enough versatility that we can score and keep pace and get shots we want,” said Murray coach Jason Workman.
“I think our versatility offensively helps us overcome things.”
In addition to Anosike’s big night, Jaxson Workman scored 14, Bowen Davies 12 and Tayshaun Tramel 11.
In ousting No. 11 seed Springville from the state tournament, No. 6 Murray marches into the quarterfinals next Monday at the University of Utah, where it will face No. 14 Timpview at 2:30 p.m.
“Nowadays with the RPI structure, if you get to the Elite 8 now it feels like you’ve played a mini tournament already. It’s a big deal,” said Workman, whose team has reached the quarterfinals four straight years now.
Nadauld made sure Murray earned it because it was pretty clear early on he was in the zone.
He scored 12 points in the first quarter and had 20 of his team’s 30 points by halftime, including three 3-pointers.
Murray still led 33-30 at the break as Anosike had 17 points.
The third quarter is when Nadauld really seemed to heat up, and he needed them all so Murray didn’t run away with the win. He hit a straightaway Stephen Curry-esque 3 with 2:58 remaining in the third to cut the lead to 47-42, and after a Anosike 3, Nadauld answered with a step-back corner 3-pointer for his 33rd point of the game.
Over the next four minutes though, Murray effectively put the game away, ripping off an 11-0 run to take a 62-47 lead with six minutes remaining.
During the stretch, Murray made things as difficult as possible for Nadauld, and his teammates weren’t knocking down their shots either.
Over the last six minutes, Murray kept Springville at bay from the foul line as it made 16 of 18 free throws .
Nadauld scored 13 of his 50 points in the final two minutes as his team tried feverishly to fight back into the game.
Despite knowing how close to 50 points he was in the final minute, he still deferred to his open teammates on several occasions. He scored his 49th and 50th points on a layup at the buzzer.
“I can honestly say in 18 years of coaching I’ve never had a kid hit 50 (for or against), said Workman.
He would’ve needed to scored 60 though for Springville to beat Murray. The state record is 58 points scored by Lynn Parsons of South Sevier in 1965. The UHSAA state record books indicates that 12 people have scored 52 or more points in state history.