High school boys basketball: Corner Canyon throttles Lone Peak, keeps win streak going

Corner Canyon remained perfect on the year against teams from the state of Utah Tuesday evening on the road against Lone Peak. The Chargers extended their win streak to 10 games when they earned an 83-59 victory over the Knights.

Corner Canyon controlled the game, scoring over 20 points in every quarter but the first and running away with the win. After the initial half, Lone Peak trailed by double digits the rest of the way. 

“We just challenged our guys to come and dominate the game defensively,” Corner Canyon head coach Dan Lunt said following his team’s blowout victory. “I thought that’s what led to everything — is our outstanding defense. They’ve shot the ball extremely well all year and they didn’t get very many good looks.” 

Along with great defense, the Chargers were explosive on the offensive end, reaching their highest point total in over a month. 

“It’s our defense,” Lunt said when asked about Corner Canyon’s offensive outburst. “It all is in transition baskets. That’s where we’re best. When we can create turnovers, there’s not too many teams that can get back in transition against us; we get the ball up so quick. And it’s all predicated on our defense. And when you guard that way, it presents a lot of easy opportunities (offensively).”

Both schools entered the matchup with perfect 3-0 records in region play. But Corner Canyon again got the best of Lone Peak, giving the Chargers their fourth consecutive triumph over the Knights and putting the Draper school in first place outright in Region 4.

“It’s just another region game tonight,” Lunt said. “But we were both 3-0. We didn’t want to be the one at 3-1. We wanted to go on the road and get one and so it was big. It’s big to the fact that we’re now 4-0 in league and sitting there (in first place). And now we’ve got a bigger target on our back and we have to come to play every night.”

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The win marks the fifth time in a row that Corner Canyon has won by double digits, all of the Chargers 2023 contests being victories by 10 or more points as they come into their own the longer the season wears on; something Lunt reiterated was a product of his team’s defense. 

Lone Peak made a mini run spanning from the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth. The Knights scored nine straight points, cutting the Corner Canyon lead to 13. However, in a flash the Chargers pushed the lead to an insurmountable 25 with 12 consecutive points.

Senior guard Max Toombs led the Chargers in scoring with 28. Not far behind was Toombs’ starting backcourt mate Jaxon Roberts, who finished the evening with 22. 

“He just did a great job,” Lunt said of Toombs. “He shot the ball well. He guarded well. Every one of our kids that scored tonight, it was a direct result of sharing the ball and playing defense.”

Corner Canyon will attempt to have that same recipe for success when it tries to stay unbeaten in region play Friday at Pleasant Grove. Lone Peak hopes to bounce back that same evening in Highland against Westlake. The two contests are scheduled to tip at 7:30 p.m.