DRAPER — While fifth-seeded Corner Canyon was relaxing Wednesday night and enjoying its bye in the first round of the new all-comers 6A state boys basketball tournament, 12th-seeded Lone Peak was getting pushed to the limit by Northridge and getting a taste of postseason play.
That experience paid off handsomely for the Knights on Friday night, as they played what coach Rob Ross called “our most composed game of the season” and upset the Chargers 87-73 at Corner Canyon High to advance to the quarterfinals next week at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Center.
“Very intense. The same intensity you get in state tournament games at (college arenas). We gave it our all. We had to take it to them after losing to them before. Now we gotta do the same thing in the next round.” — Lone Peak’s Cameron Brimhall
“I think it helps to get a game under your belt,” Ross said. “I also think the fact that we won a game in here earlier in the year helped a lot, just knowing that we had won in this gym before and had success here.”
That’s right, one of the quirks of this newfangled format and the way teams are seeded by RPI, and not how they finished in their regions, is that region foes faced off for the third time in Draper. Lone Peak downed Corner Canyon 62-55 on Jan. 24, while the Chargers prevailed 10 days ago at Lone Peak, 73-61.
Lone Peak 87, Corner Canyon 73
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Leading scorers
Lone Peak: Cameron Brimhall, 22
Corner Canyon: Trace Ross, 25
“We did a good job bouncing back,” said Lone Peak senior guard Corbin Zentner, who tied teammate Cameron Brimhall for team-high scoring honors with 22 points. “We played with better intensity than we did last week, and we were ready to go. In past games, we haven’t always been ready to go.”
The 6-foot-8 Brimhall, a junior who is hearing from schools such as Utah Valley and Utah State, was the benefactor of some outstanding guard play, as time and again Lone Peak guards penetrated and found the big guy for easy dunks and layups.
Corner Canyon’s best moments came in the first quarter and early in the second, when the hosts jumped out to a 27-19 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by leading scorer Trace Ross (27 points) and a triple from sophomore Tate Staley, son of former BYU football great Luke Staley.
But the Knights put together a 12-3 run at the end of the second quarter, led 35-32 at halftime, and then dominated the second half.
Lone Peak point guard Aaron Edwards, generously listed at 5-foot-9, didn’t score much but controlled the game in other ways, and got Corner Canyon’s Trace Ross so agitated that he picked up a technical foul.
“He is a fireball, isn’t he?” said Rob Ross (no relation). “That kid, whatever you ask him to do, he goes out and does it. He will jump through a hoop for this team. He is all about the team.”
The atmosphere was state tournament-like, including a healthy amount of jawing back and forth between the students. Both schools had strong showings to turn up the intensity, and play turned extra physical in the fourth quarter.
“Very intense,” Brimhall said. “The same intensity you get in state tournament games at (college arenas). We gave it our all. We had to take it to them after losing to them before. Now we gotta do the same thing in the next round.”
That will come Wednesday, when the Knights (13-10) will face another Region 4 team for the third time, league champion Skyridge, at 9:30 a.m. Skyridge walloped Lone Peak 72-56 last Friday.
“We have to limit their 3-point shots and limit their runs,” Rob Ross said. “We have to play defense like it is the last game we will ever play.”
And stay as composed as they were Friday night.