High school boys basketball: Joseph Wolfe’s late heroics secure Payson’s first state title in school history

Box score

Payson’s Joseph Wolfe will forever be a legend at Payson High School.

The junior reserve had only scored six points in Payson’s first two tournament games at SUU — both 3-pointers — heading into Saturday’s 4A state championship game.

But late in the fourth quarter against top seed Green Canyon in a very tight game, Wolfe drained the two biggest shots of his life to lead Payson to the 54-51 victory and the first state championship in school history.

His first triple was a huge bucket, cutting Green Canyon’s lead to 49-48 as Payson battled back from a nine-point deficit early in the fourth quarter.

His second 3-pointer is the type of moment players dream of. With the game tied 51-51, Wolfe buried a trey coming out of a timeout to give his team the lead, and then his team got a defensive stop at the other end as the Payson faithful stormed the floor for a celebration decades in the making.

“These kids worked so hard,” said Payson head coach Anthony Mitchell as his players cut down the nets. “Just being here is awesome, but winning is icing on the cake. I’m so proud of my boys. Green Canyon is a heck of a team. We had to play our best to beat them, and we did just that.”

Wolfe, who in many ways is a 3-point specialist, finished the season with 40 3-pointers — none bigger than the last of his junior season.

Like it has all season, Payson got great balance en route to the elusive state title. Legend Reynoso led the way with 15 points, while Micah Swasey added 13 and Zandon Theobald chipped in 12.

Payson jumped out fast, building a seven-point lead early in the first quarter, but that lead vanished very quickly. Green Canyon surged back in front 21-15 by the end of the first quarter and led 30-29 at the half as Jude Haigh was red hot.

Haigh made 6-of-9 3-pointers in the first half, scoring 18 of his game-high 22 points in the first two quarters.

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About the only thing that cooled him down was the 15-minute halftime break, and he didn’t make another 3-pointer the rest of the way.

Boston Horman helped pick up the slack in the second half as Green Canyon extended the lead to 41-37 at the end of the third quarter and then 46-37 at the 6:39 mark of the fourth quarter on Horman’s layup.

Mitchell said there was no panic from his team.

“We’ve been in that position before, and I told them this is gonna pay off down the road somewhere, and it did tonight,” said Mitchell. “These guys never give up. Yeah, they have a lot of fight in them, and they’re champions.”

Trailing 47-39 with 6:12 remaining, Payson got a huge 3-pointer from Theobald to cut the deficit to 47-42.

Mitchell called a timeout, but Green Canyon had better offensive execution coming out of it as Jamison Thomson scored at the rim pushing the lead back to 49-42.

Payson responded with a 6-0 run over the next two minutes, with Wolfe’s 3-pointer making it a 49-48 game.

Green Canyon finally halted its three-and-a-half minute scoring drought on a Thomson layup with 2:06 left, regaining the 51-48 lead.

It never scored again.

Reynoso cut the lead to 51-50 on a layup at the 1:34 mark, and then nine seconds later Kade Jenson made one of two free throws, tying the game 51-51.

Payson got a stop defensively on the ensuing possessions, and then offensively it worked the shot clock down five seconds before Wolfe became the hero of the year.

“There’s a lot of alumni here celebrating and supporting us,” Mitchell said, “and it’s just awesome.”

4A All-Tournament Team

MVP — Legend Reynoso, Payson

Micah Swasey, Payson

Jude Haigh, Green Canyon

Easton Stokes, Green Canyon

Brigham Kemp, Hurricane

Jay Jay Davey, Dixie