High school boys basketball: 4A semifinal recap, No. 1 Green Canyon, No. 2 Payson advance to title game

Here’s a recap of Friday’s 4A boys basketball semifinals at Southern Utah University. This story will be updated.

Payson 63, Hurricane 58

Payson trailed almost in the entire game in Friday’s 4A semifinal at SUU as it absorbed body blow after body blow from Hurricane — aka 3-pointers.

No. 6 seed Hurricane buried 10 3-pointers against No. 2 seed Payson — most of them timely momentum killers — which is usually tough to overcome.

Somehow though, the Lions did.

Despite trailing for 24 total minutes in front of a spirited crowd, Payson made clutch shots over the final four minutes to rally for the 63-58 victory to secure the school’s first state championship appearance since 2007.

“Credit Hurricane. They came out wanting to win. We tried a lot of things, and they played us very well. I’m just so, so proud of my boys for finishing tonight,” said Payson coach Anthony Mitchell. “I think it’s the little things that we preach all year and things that you don’t really recognize that they’re doing, but they’re doing it. They’re just staying within the system, staying focused with what we want to do.”

One of the biggest little things all coaches preach is rebounding, and that won Payson the game on Friday night.

Hurricane outshot Payson by a pretty significant percentage — 50% to 38% — and made more 3-pointers, but it got crushed on the boards.

Payson enjoyed a 35-21 edge in rebounding, and a 21-7 on the offensive glass. The end result was a 17-3 edge in second-chance points.

“That’s something we preach. We highlight that every game, and it’s just part of these kids doing the little things,” said Mitchell.

Legend Reynoso finished the game with 16 points and nine rebounds, while Kade Jenson and Zandon Theobald added 11 points each and Waylon Francom chipped in with 10.

“That’s our team. That’s something we’ve done all year. It seems like every game we’ve played, we probably have three different leading scorers every single game, they just take turns, and we’re well balanced, which is awesome. I love it,” said Mitchell.

Brigham Kemp and Tyson Stout each finished with 14 points in the loss for Hurricane.

Payson has never won a boys basketball state championship, but it gets a chance to end that long drought on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. against top seed Green Canyon.

Mitchell said his team will need to start much better than it did against Hurricane, falling behind by 13 points early in the second quarter.

The Lions chipped away at the deficit and cut it to 34-29 by halftime.

They cut it to 37-35 early in the third, but Hurricane kept burying timely 3-pointers, pushing the lead back to 44-36 and then 49-41.

Down 49-43 after three, Payson opened the fourth quarter on a 9-3 run as Waylon Francom buried a 3-pointer with 4:22 remaining leveling the score 52-52.

Immediately after Hurricane’s Lincoln Stout drained Hurricane’s 10th 3-pointer for the 55-52 lead. Payson responded with points on its next two possessions to pull ahead 56-55, its first lead since very early in the game.

Hurricane reclaimed the lead with 1:35 remaining on a Calan Hughes lay-up, but that was the Tigers’ last lead of the game.

Payson worked the shot clock on its next possession, creating an open 3-pointer look for Reynoso who drained it for the 59-57 lead with 1:06 remaining.

Hurricane couldn’t answer at the other end, and then Payson iced the game from the free throw line.

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Green Canyon 59, Dixie 35

No. 1 Green Canyon put on a defensive clinic in Friday’s 4A semifinal at SUU.

The Wolves held fourth-seeded Dixie to just 35 points, equaling a season low, as they rolled to a surprisingly easily 59-35 victory to advance to the first boys basketball title game in school history.

“Our guys were locked in from last night. They were ready to go, excited to play and decided to play our brand of basketball. I thought we did a really good job giving them different looks,” said Green Canyon coach Logan Brown. “Just excited for our kids, because they were so locked in before this game.”

With the win, Green Canyon (25-1) advances to Saturday’s state championship at 5:30 p.m.

For any team that participated in the Highland-Olympus spring league back in April and May, they’ll likely do a double-take to see Green Canyon’s eye-popping record.

After all, with little varsity experience back from the previous team’s semifinal run, Green Canyon was pretty green and struggled last spring.

By June though, coach Brown saw the makings of a special group developing.

“We only had one or two guys that had played varsity the before, so it was learning how to play at a little higher level and it was the first week in June when we really started to connect as a team and get better and then it was just keep chopping wood, keep getting better and these guys have been outstanding since August,” said Brown.

“We had to go find out how we needed to not play. Part of those spring leagues is great because you find out a little bit of what you need to not do with your team.”

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Green Canyon hasn’t slowed down all season as it rolls into Saturday’s championship with the top scoring offense and defense in 4A.

Green Canyon’s suffocating zone defense held Dixie to just 26% shooting, while offensively it shot 51%. When Green Canyon subbed out its starting five with 2:32 remaining in the game, it led 54-26.

In many ways, it was the perfect defensive game for the Wolves in slowing down Dixie, which had won five games heading into the semis.

“They’re very disciplined. They’re going to be very patient on offense. Our goal was to disrupt their flow, and I thought it’s more about the way we’re going to play, play our style of basketball and execute. I thought our kids were really good,” said Brown.

It was another balanced game offensively for Green Canyon, with Easton Stokes leading the way with 12 points, and Jamison Thomson and Jude Haigh each chipping in with 11 apiece.

Dixie’s Tyson Forsey led all scorers in the loss with 14 points.

Brown, who is in his fourth year as head coach at Green Canyon after 11 seasons at Logan, is ecstatic that this group of players gets to play in the championship.

“This is a group that was put in a lot of time since April, and we’ve gotten so much better, and they’re so connected on the court, but also off the court,” he said.

“We’re really lucky at Green Canyon to have the support we have, because we have a great fan base. Our student section shows up every night. They make it fun.”