Cooper Lewis had a dream of winning a state championship with his father.
Quincy Lewis had a dream of winning one with his son.
Easton Hawkins had a dream of winning a state championship in his late father’s honor.
Lehi’s student section, stacked all the way to the top of Section Y in the Jon M. Huntsman Center, had a dream of going all the way in the school’s first year in the 6A classification.
Sometimes, dreams really do come true.
“Pioneer”-ing their way into the top classification in the state, senior Cooper Lewis, Hawkins and the Lehi Pioneers came and took down the giants, blowing past defending champion Corner Canyon in the first half and holding on to beat the Chargers, 78-67, to claim the 6A state championship on Friday night.
Cooper and Quincy Lewis’ shared goal of winning a title together “started from Day 1,” Cooper said.
“It’s real special to win with him,” the younger Lewis said. “It’s pretty exciting. I’m really happy to win for him.”
Cooper Lewis’ knack for incendiary offense showed up in a big way as the senior guard dropped 30 points on 10 of 23 shooting with five 3-pointers, even as all he had to show for the first quarter was a trio of free throws earned by drawing a perimeter shooting foul.
So who kept the Pioneers going in the beginning after the Chargers rushed out to an 11-2 lead in the first quarter?
Give the flowers to Hawkins, who set out to be the third of his brothers to win a title for Lehi after his father passed away just two years ago (is two brothers won a state title with Lehi in 5A in 2021 in coach Lewis’ first year).
“I’ve just been working hard ever since then to try and make him proud,” Hawkins said. “I know he was over here watching today, and I just know he’s proud, so that feels amazing.”
Hawkins helped Lehi fight to a 17-17 tie at the end of the first by scoring 12 points and closing the quarter on a personal 7-3 run.
“That’s what Coach (Lewis) is always telling me,” Hawkins said. “I gotta come out, help and provide, because (Coop) is scoring 27 points per game. He’s gonna be drawing so much attention. Points just come easy at that point. I just do my job and stick my shots.”
Not long into the second quarter, Cooper Lewis’ shots started to drop and the Chargers’ jaws followed soon after, as they watched the Pioneers steamroll their way to a 30-3 run over roughly an eight-minute span.
Part of it involved Lehi starting out the quarter on a 21-0 run.
“That was all on the defensive end,” Hawkins said. “Our defense translates to offense in transition. Our transition, when we get into it, nobody can stop us.”
By the time Corner Canyon had steadied the boat, Lehi sported a 38-17 lead.
Lehi had one other double-figure scorer, senior Gabe Cowan, who chipped in 10 points.
Corner Canyon was led by 20 points from senior center Derelle Desire. Senior USC signee Brody Kozlowski added 16 points, going 7 for 7 from the free throw line, and senior Isaac Neibaur added 14 points.
“Corner (Canyon) made a good push right there at the beginning,” coach Lewis said, “but we’ve been in some tough battles in our region and we kept our cool and our defense settled in got out in transition.”
Quincy Lewis, who won seven state titles while at Lone Peak, added a second one to his tenure at Lehi, cementing him as the king of the hill with the most boys basketball championships of any coach in state history. He is 9-0 in state championship games.
And he didn’t say a thing about it. All he cared about was doing it with his sons, related or not.
“It’s such a great feeling to do it with Coop and this great group and program that we’ve developed over the last four years. It’s been great,” he said.
“When we first took the Lehi job four years ago, we said, ‘We’re going there to win some state championships.’ It wasn’t going to be easy, but we did what we had to do, but we built our program and got a lot of good kids involved, and here we are.”
6A All-Tournament Team
MVP – Cooper Lewis, Sr., Lehi
Guard – Easton Hawkins, Jr., Lehi
Guard – Isaac Neibaur, Sr., Corner Canyon
Forward – Grayson Brousseau, Sr., Lehi
Forward – Malcolm Johnson, Sr., Herriman
Post – Derelle Desire, Sr., Corner Canyon