CEDAR CITY — The first upset of the 3A boys basketball state tournament happened early Thursday morning in Cedar City as No. 6 Summit Academy downed No. 3 Emery, 48-42.
After early control by the Spartans and some rough shooting by the Bears, Summit Academy outscored Emery 12-5 in the final quarter, proving the parity of the 3A field in truest form.
“We played in the region that everybody thought was horrible,” Summit Academy coach Curtis Condie said. “But we’re OK at defense, and we scored a few more points against a well-coached, outstanding team at Emery.”
Senior forward Sherlock Padmore II led all scorers with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting in a low-scoring affair. Senior forward Wade Stilson led Emery with 12 points.
Padmore went to work early on the Emery interior defense, scoring six points in the first quarter.
Summit Academy pulled out to a 21-12 lead before Emery came alive with a 12-1 run to take the lead on an and-1 basket by senior forward Stilson. Stilson made the free throw to hit 10 points in the half, and it was enough for the Spartans to hold a slim lead going into halftime, 26-25.
Initially, Emery continued the surge in the third quarter with a 7-0 run to get out to a 34-26 lead until the Bears got back in gear, helped along by both Bryson Ottley and Eric Pesci making their first 3-pointers of the game back-to-back to tie it at 36.
Inside of two minutes, with the Bears up 3, Ottley took hold of an errant ball in the paint and put it up for a five-point lead. Summit Academy managed yet another offensive rebound off a free throw by Ottley with just over a minute to go and burned the whole 35-second shot clock on the possession, leaving Emery with 28.5 seconds left down 46-42. Sophomore Zach Tuttle’s corner 3 clanged off the rim, and the Bears held on for the win.
Juab 46, Richfield 44
CEDAR CITY — No. 7 Juab kept the upset streak going in the 3A boys basketball state tournament with a 46-44 win over No. 2 Richfield.
“That’s a really, really good Richfield team,” Juab coach Kamron Wright said. “Coach Janes does an incredible job. … We’ve had some tight ones that didn’t go our way, but the ball bounced a certain way, and we got it today.”
Juab senior guard Austin Park scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half, including six in the fourth quarter, while senior Ryker Richards converted the go-ahead and-1 basket and free throw to give the Wasps the lead in the final minute. Richfield junior guard Miles Barnett led the Wildcats with 15 points.
Wright credited his four seniors for providing the leadership that pulled the Wasps through to the finish when Richfield had control of the game early.
The Wildcats raced out to an early lead, 17-9, in the first quarter thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from junior guard Miles Barnett as Richfield went on a 12-3 run over the last few minutes of the quarter.
Juab tightened up on defense for much of the second quarter and turned a high-speed game into a slugfest for over six minutes, narrowing the gap to just four. In the final minute, Richfield outscored Juab, 5-3 to maintain a 26-20 lead at halftime, led by eight points from Barnett. The Wildcats shot 4 of 6 from the arc in the first half.
The game got even tighter in the third when Juab went on an 8-0 run late in the quarter to take a brief lead.
Richfield clung to a 44-42 lead in the final minute when Juab senior Ryker Richards spun for an and-1 layup. His free throw gave the Wasps the lead with 40 seconds remaining.
Over two minutes passed without a basket in the beginning of the fourth quarter before Barnett broke the ice with a triple.
The Wasps disrupted Richfield’s ensuing possession and forced the Wildcats to foul, sending senior Justin Stevens to the line. Steven made 1 of 2 shots, and Juab held together on defense to secure the second upset of the day.
Manti 70, Canyon View 52
CEDAR CITY— Manti proved on Thursday how difficult it is to hold the Templars down for four quarters.
The No. 1 Templars erupted down the stretch and ousted No. 8 Canyon View from the 3A state tournament with a 70-52 win despite a huge Canyon View crowd filling the America First Events Center.
“I was really pleased with our defensive adjustments,” Manti coach Devin Shakespear said. “In the first and second half, we played good defense and kept bringing the offense along. Sometimes it happens over time, sometimes all at once.”
It was a great game for the first time in a while for senior guard Larson Pogroszewski. He led Manti with 20 points, going 4 of 6 from the 3-point line, while junior Reggie Frischknecht backed him up with 19 points and 16 rebounds. Senior guard Chad Hartmann led the Falcons with 15 points, while senior Trey Jacobsen added 10 points.
The Falcons threw a solid punch at Manti in the first quarter, leading for most of the time until a 7-0 Manti run gave them the lead going into the second quarter.
Once the Templars got going, the game kicked into overdrive with both teams nearly tripling their score. Hartmann kept the Falcons in the game as he went off for 13 points in the quarter, while Manti spread the ball everywhere and went into halftime leading, 28-23, with Frischknecht leading the way with 10 points.
After trading shots in the third period, Manti led 41-37 heading into the fourth quarter. That’s when the Templars opened the floodgates.
What was a relatively close game became a Manti downpour as the Templars outscored Canyon View 29-15 in the fourth to win by 18.
Grantsville 52, Morgan 43
CEDAR CITY — It’s hard to beat a good team three times, but No. 4 Grantsville made it happen Thursday as the Cowboys prevailed over region rival No. 5 Morgan, 53-43.
“Hats off to Morgan,” Grantsville coach Nate Austin said. “Every time we’ve played them, they’ve made it tough for us in the beginning.”
Grantsville senior guard Brigham Mulford scored 11 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter as the Cowboys pulled away in the second half. Sophomore Bryson Roberts added another 10 points. Morgan senior Aiden Harris led the Trojans with 10 points.
It was an ugly first quarter for the Cowboys as they went the entire quarter without a field goal while Morgan went on a slow, methodical 8-0 run. The Trojans took a 13-7 lead in the first quarter.
Grantsville’s shooting woes seemed to continue through the first half, but they managed to open at the 3-point line. Mulford notched 10 points in the half to lead all scorers when he took a wild shot from the top of the key in the final seconds of the first half and banked it in to tie it at 21. A free throw disparity also kept Grantsville in the game, going 9-11 while Morgan went 2-6.
“We don’t want to live and die by the 3, but we’re not naïve to the fact that we’re a team that has to hit them in order to win,” Austin said. “As they started to go in, it was relieving to have that pressure off.”
Grantsville slowly began to take control in the second half. After going the whole first half without one, the Cowboys finally scored a 2-point basket when Roberts hit a layup. The Cowboys jumped ahead and stayed ahead as Morgan’s shooting began to falter.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Cowboys went on an 8-0 run capped by a Mulford triple and forced a Morgan timeout as the Cowboys players hooted and hollered their way to the bench with a 12-point lead.
That run proved to be the critical streak that ultimately kept Grantsville ahead for good even after Morgan countered with a 7-0 run later on. Grantsville moved on in the tournament with its third-straight win over the Trojans this season.