Here’s a recap of the 6A quarterfinals at the University of Utah on Monday, with the top four seeds, No. 1 Herriman, No. 2 Davis, No. 3 Layton and No. 4 Corner Canyon all advancing to Friday’s semifinals
Layton 86, Lone Peak 55
Layton has been the best offensive team in 6A all season, and Lone Peak simply couldn’t keep up in Monday’s 6A quarterfinal at the University of Utah.
The Lancers outscored Lone Peak in all four quarters — building a 34-point lead at one point — as they cruised to the 86-55 victory to advance to the semifinals for the second straight year.
“I just loved the energy and the effort from the beginning. From the beginning we came out with energy, played hard, played together, played Lancer basketball,” said Layton coach Kelby Miller.
Layton surpassed 80 points for the eighth time this season in the win, and came up one bucket short of equaling its season-high of 88 points against Taylorsville back in Dec. 19.
These teams met back in December with Layton winning 72-57, never looking back after jumping in front 24-10. Monday’s game was pretty similar. The Lancers led 19-8 after the first quarter, 35-22 at the half and 64-33 after three.
Layton shot 61 percent as a team (35 of 57) and 53 percent from 3-point range (9 of 17).
The 86 points is the most points scored in a quarterfinal or later state tournament game in the stat’s highest classification since Lone Peak beat Copper Hills 88-73 in the semifinals in 2017.
“Obviously it speaks volumes for these guys. They really want to see their teammates be successful, and so when you’re seeing other guys besides the normal guys who score for us, knock down shots and to see how everybody responds to that, it’s big for us as a team,” said Miller.
Karter Miller led the way for Layton scoring 26 points on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range to go along with five rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Josh Checketts chipped in with 15 points, and Tage Allen adding 11.
Miller leads Layton in every statistical category but blocks, but his dad says that’s never his focus when he steps on the floor.
“I don’t know too many guys in 6A in the top of just about every single category. But the main thing Is he just wants to win, wants to be a leader and wants his teammates would be successful,” said Kelby Miller.
No. 3 seed Layton advances to face No. 2 seed and Region 1 foe Davis in the semifinals at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams won by double-digits on their home floor during region play.
Sam Suarez and Logan Brimhall each scored 12 points in the loss for Lone Peak.
Davis 65, Westlake 59
In a 6A quarterfinal where statistically there wasn’t much separating Davis and Westlake, there were two keys that realistically made the difference:
Transition basketball and free throws.
Davis turned 14 Westlake turnovers into 16 points on Monday — many in the first half when it built a lead it never relinquished.
The other factor was actually making free throws in crunch time, something it didn’t do in a double overtime win over American Fork the round prior.
Those two things were critical as Davis held off a late push from Westlake for the 65-59 win at the University of Utah to advance to its first semifinal since winning the state championship in 2021.
The Darts had lost in the quarterfinals each of the past two years, and then the second round the year before.
“It’s hard to get here. You have to play well during the season. They’ve been committed to this process. And this is their ultimate goal and so I’m really happy for them,” said Davis coach Chad Sims.
With the win, the Darts advance to Wednesday’s semifinals and will face the winner of Layton-Lone Peak at 4 p.m.
Coleman Atwater led the way for the Darts with 26 points off 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range to go along with his five rebounds and two steals.
He scored 18 of those points in the first half as Davis built a 38-29 halftime lead.
JT Turley added 11 points for Davis, while Tradon Bessinger chipped in 10.
“We talked about it all year with our first group, for them to get stops, to get out and run. We’re the most efficient that way. When we can’t get clean stops, we just tend to get bogged down a little bit,” said Sims. “We knew Westlake would settle in and then hit some shots, so turning them over really helped.”
Davis’ lead hovered around 6-8 points for most of the third quarter. It used a mini 6-0 run early in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 59-47 with 4:54 remaining.
Westlake got hot though, as Greydin Anderson, Symon Sua and Slone Sua made 3-pointers to cut the lead to 59-56 with 2:00 left.
The Thunder cut the lead to 59-57 on a 1-of-2 trip to the foul line with 1:01 remaining. But they couldn’t get any closer, as Davis took care of business at the stripe going 6-for-6 in the final 46 seconds to secure the win.
In the double-overtime win over American Fork in the 6A second round last Friday, Davis only made 12 -of-24 free throws. Most of those misses came in crunch time.
“We’re a great free throw shooting team. We have been all year. A little bit of a fluke situation (last week). We felt comfortable at the free throw line. We haven’t talked at all. We haven’t worked anymore, any less. It was what it was on Friday, and today I thought the kids would step up and they did,” said Sims.
Davis’ coach believes the tough preseason schedule his team face prepared them for the tight quarterfinal battle.
“We respect coach (Nate) Carling. He’s been around forever. They’re hard nosed, get after it defensively. We knew it’d be a tough game, but seeing them for the first time, I thought our kids played well, responded to the game plan that we had for them,” said Sims.
Herriman 67, Lehi 63
A website that tracks NBA analytics indicates that a team trailing by 17 points in the second half has less than a 10% chance of coming back to win the game. In high school basketball, that percentage is probably even less with the shortened games.
That’s what made top seed Herriman’s 67-63 come-from-behind win over No. 8 seed Lehi so improbable on Monday afternoon at the University of Utah.
“It is a little uncommon for that to happen, but this is an uncommon team,” said Herriman coach Doug Meacham.
Lehi led 28-19 at the half, and then opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run to secure a 36-19 lead.
But from that point on, Herriman went on a ridiculous 48-27 run the rest of the way , shooting 77% from the field (17 of 22) including 6 of 9 from 3.
“I just was proud of these guys for their mentality. They didn’t look like they were defeated. We were getting punched. And credit Lehi for how hard and physical they were playing,” said Meacham. “I just loved how they weathered it.”
Stockton Blanched scored all 15 of his points in the second half on 3 of 4 shooting from 3-point range, while Cale Barclay scored 11 of his 21 points in the second half as the Mustangs put together the impressive rally.
Carlo Mulford also chipped in with 14 points for Herriman, which finished the game shooting 59%.
Lehi was great offensively all game, as well, shooting 51% from the field and 47% from 3-point range (10 of 21). That’s almost always good enough to win in the playoffs.
Early on, nerves seemed to get the better of Herriman as it turned the ball over 10 times, which led to a 14-0 edge for Lehi in the first half in points off turnovers.
“Too many turnovers in the first half, and that’s just playing fast, and you just have to kind of let it play itself out and get the ball moving and that kind of thing,” said Meacham.
Though the pressure and the resulting turnovers were a concern at the half, Meacham reminded his players of something he’s been saying all season.
“I think the pressure has been on us all year long, and we have a saying, ‘Pressure is a privilege,’ and so we want to embrace it,” said Meacham. “I love our focus before games and shootarounds and walk throughs they approach the game in a great, professional way, and that’s just fun group to be around.”
Even though 17 points is a massive lead to overcome, realistically for Herriman the deficit wasn’t that big for long.
After falling behind 36-19, it buried four straight 3-pointers over a two-minute stretch to cut the lead to 36-31. When Dray Stilson sank Herriman’s fifth 3-pointer of the quarter at the buzzer, it cut the lead to 43-40 heading into the fourth.
In the fourth, the Mustangs put on an offensive clinic. They scored points on 13 of 15 possessions, including making their final 11 shots. All but one of those was at the rim as Barclay in particular attacked the paint.
“Cale in our time out, he said, ‘Coach, I can take him any time,’ and we know he can. And so we wanted to get Cale catches in the paint. I loved his aggressiveness and wanting the ball, and that’s what you’re looking for. Who’s going to want to want to get catches when it’s hard,” said Mecham.
When Barclay was double teamed, he found the cutter on several possessions for more easy lay-ups.
With the win, top seed Herriman advances to Wednesday’s semifinal to face No. 4 seed Corner Canyon at 5:40 p.m.
Corner Canyon 62, Bingham 52
When Corner Canyon went up by 14 points early in the fourth quarter against Bingham, it simply didn’t fit the game script of how most figured the 6A quarterfinal would unfold.
After all, in two region games the teams played a pair of 3-point games, each winning on the road. A blowout was not what anyone expected in the grudge match at the University of Utah on Monday.
So when Bingham responded with an 11-0 run over a four-minute stretch — and even had a 3-point attempt to tie it — things were back on track for another tight finish.
Corner Canyon, however, responded with a run of its own, closing the game on a 12-5 spurt to pull away for the 62-52 win over Bingham and book its place in Wednesday’s semifinals.
“We start as a group two weeks after our moratorium. We go all year long. That’s what they work for, that’s what they dream about. It doesn’t matter what group, it’s special,” said Corner Canyon coach Dan Lunt.
The Chargers will face the winner of Herriman-Lehi in the semifinals on Wednesday at 5:40 p.m.
After Bingham cut Corner Canyon’s lead from 50-36 to 50-47, the Chargers finally got stops defensively and then iced the game, making 8 of 8 free throws as Bingham had no choice but to foul.
The Chargers got balanced scoring in the win as Bryton Valdez led the way with 15 points, Noah Bendinger added 13 and Tyler Mortensen chipped in with 10.
“There’s going to be games where Noah goes off, and Noah’s a great player, but there’s also games where we have four or five guys in double figures, and I think it’s always based on the flow of the game. Bingham did a great job of making it tough on us, so other people had to step up and they did,” said Lunt.
That balance was evident in the third quarter as the Chargers stretched the lead from 23-21 at the half to 43-34 after three. Mortensen, Bendinger and Diesel Dart all buried 3s during the big quarter.
In the fourth, Corner Canyon opened with a 7-2 run to build its largest lead of the game.
“After we got that big lead, that’s what hurt us, offensive rebound, that’s what got them back in the game. When we made that that run, we dominated the glass at both ends, and when they made the run to get back in, they dominated the glass on the offensive end, and those are things we’ve got to do a better job of,” said Lunt.
During Corner Canyon’s big second half run spanning the third and fourth quarters, it scored 11 points off of turnovers, finishing with a 16-6 edge in transition.
What allowed Bingham to keep it close was its edge on the offensive boards, as it outrebounded the Chargers 11-6 on the offensive glass, turning those into 10 second-chance points.
In the loss, Jason Peterson led Bingham with 12 points.