Basketball hardly gets better than the minutes past 10 p.m. in the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Wednesday night, and they’re the moments that never get old for Quincy Lewis.
The No. 2 Lehi Pioneers trailed 62-55 in the final minute of the 6A semifinals against No. 3 Herriman, but after a quick Lehi 3-pointer, senior Cooper Lewis drained all three free throws from a 3-point shooting foul and the Pioneers forced a turnover with 10.4 seconds remaining.
Lewis scored a game-high 27 points on the night, but in that final play, he did what few would have expected: dish it.
The ball went inside the post to senior Gabe Cowan, then to senior Grayson Brousseau on the baseline, and with all the strength of a future collegiate tight end, he finished over two defenders for the game-winning bucket to win it for Lehi 63-62 and punch a ticket to the 6A championship game.
No one, not even Brousseau, really expected the game to be in his hands in the final moments.
“Honestly, I had no idea,” Brousseau said. “I just trusted my teammates, and I knew Coop was gonna make the right play like he’s done all year, and the ball went to (Cowan) and he made the right play like he always does. It was just awesome to be able to do that for my teammates.”
A 3-pointer from Herriman junior guard Stockton Blanchard pushed the Mustangs’ out to a 7-point lead late, and the game appeared even more in hand when senior Cale Barclay nabbed a clutch offensive rebound with roughly 30 seconds to go while Herriman held to a 62-58 lead.
Most teams would have been in fouling mode by that point to get the possessions for a desperate rally, but Lehi instead went for the ball.
The first of two game-deciding turnovers was a steal that led to Cooper Lewis streaking downcourt to draw a foul on a wild shot from the arc.
Given the chance to make it a one-possession game, Cooper Lewis coolly sank all three shots from the stripe, barely even wiggling the net.
With a foul to give, Lehi fouled to give Herriman an inbound opportunity at the sideline, then the full-court press did exactly what all full-court presses dream of doing, forcing the mustangs to cough up the ball on a clean swipe, and in the loose-ball-generated fracas, the Pioneers came up with it and called timeout for a do-or-die opportunity.
“We just leaned on each other, man,” Brousseau said. “This group right here has put in so much effort, and we’ve been together for two years now, and we love each other, and we just lean on that. It doesn’t matter how much we get down; we’re gonna keep fighting. At some point, that just got us back in the game.”
Cooper Lewis’s 27-point night came on 10 of 20 shooting from the field as he put the shouldered his typical offensive load. Brousseau has 12 points on 4 of 6 shooting, no shot greater than his last, and junior guard Easton Hawkins had 11 points.
Herriman led nearly the entire game, taking a 17-15 into the end of the first quarter, but as long as Cooper was still shooting, the Pioneers were never far off.
By midway through the fourth quarter, Herriman went fully anti-Cooper, giving him the Jimmer Fredette defensive treatment with double-teams at the perimeter and a press on him whenever the ball was in his hands.
Yet legendary coach in Quincy Lewis pretty well knew it would come down to someone besides his son putting the ball through the net.
“They denied him all over the court, and yet, look at those numbers, that’s the real deal,” Coach Lewis said. “But the most impressive thing is that he made the right decisions down the stretch with two guys guarding him. He made one pass, we made one extra one, and we got the plays that we wanted.”
The strength shown by Brousseau in finishing the biggest basketball shot of his career over a dominant Mustangs frontcourt was not unnoticed. Coming off the court, Coach Lewis interacted with a Lehi fan, shouting, “That’s a Utah State tight end making that shot!”
Herriman was led in scoring by senior center Malcolm Johnson with 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting. He was one of four Mustangs in double figures as Barclay added 14 points, Blanchard added 12, and senior Ike Palmer added 11.
Lehi advances to the state championship in its first year as a 6A program. The Pioneers will take on No. 4 Corner Canyon at 7 p.m.