High school boys basketball: Poised Woods Cross pulls away from Orem late for 5A quarterfinal win

SALT LAKE CITY — When things got tight late in Tuesday’s 5A boys basketball quarterfinal, Woods Cross didn’t panic and just kept playing loose like always.

“We’ve been playing together since we were like in third grade, and we’ve all been best friends off the court since then too, so we’ve just had this chemistry our whole lives and we all trust each other and we all know what each other can do,” said Woods Cross’ Tyler Roberts.

“They play really well together, they play for each other. I think the culture of them that they’ve developed as a unit is the thing that really held us together.” — Woods Cross coach Jeff Jorgensen on Tyler Roberts and Quaid Knell

That trust helped the Wildcats make sure the ball was where it needed to be throughout the fourth quarter as they survived for the 80-75 win over Orem in an entertaining back-and-forth game at the Huntsman Center.

There were 11 lead changes and eight ties in Tuesday’s game — including six lead changes in the fourth quarter.

The final lead change came when Quaid Knell scored on a layup with 3 minutes remaining putting Woods Cross up 72-71. On the next possession Roberts converted another layup for the 74-71 lead.

Orem missed a 3-pointer at the 1:22 mark that could’ve tied the game, and after that Woods Cross iced the game from the free-throw line by making just enough clutch shots.

With the win, No. 3 Woods Cross advances to Thursday’s semifinals and will face No. 2 Springville at 8:40 p.m.

“They play really well together, they play for each other. I think the culture of them that they’ve developed as a unit is the thing that really held us together,” said Woods Cross coach Jeff Jorgensen.

Woods Cross 80, Orem 75

(Box Score)

Leading scorers

Woods Cross: Tyler Roberts, Jake Howe, 20

Orem: Taft Mitchell, 30

Jake Howe and Roberts led Woods Cross with 20 points each, while Knell chipped in with 17 and Elliot Spencer added 10.

Orem had a hard time defending the quartet, which Jorgensen said has kind of been Woods Cross’ mantra all season.

“We have a couple kids we go to, but at the same time we have guys that at any given night can be that factor that will change the game,” said Jorgensen.

Orem led 37-34 at the break, but in the third quarter Woods Cross started dictating tempo, outscoring the Tigers 27-19 to take a 59-56 lead into the fourth.

In the fourth, Knell came up huge burying back-to-back 3-pointers early in the quarter, extending the lead to 65-60.

Over the next two minutes Orem scored on five of six possessions to regain the 71-70 lead, but Knell’s layup put his team up for good.

“He is a pure, pure shooter,” said Jorgensen about Knell. “He hit a slump that no kid should ever have to go through about a third of the way through the season. It was just a nasty, nasty slump and it kind of affected everything he did.”

Knell spent half the season focusing on the little things to help him shake his funk, and it’s safe to say it’s disappeared as he’s averaged 15.3 points and made eight 3-pointers over the past three games.

Taft Mitchell led Orem with 30 points on 11 of 20 shooting in the loss.

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