Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s 5A quarterfinal games at the University of Utah. This story will be updated.
Brighton 55, Orem 53
Not a lot of people gave Brighton a chance in Tuesday’s 5A quarterfinal against No. 1 Orem.
“That team is as talented a team as I’ve seen in the state of Utah in a long time. They check all the boxes,” said Brighton coach Tim Gardner.
Despite being outmatched on paper at just about every position, Gardner believed his team had been building toward just such a moment all season.
“From Day 1, our goal is to play our best basketball in February. We’ve had, like every team, we’ve dealt with a lot of adversity over the course of this season,” said Gardner. “Guys have just kept buying in and getting better and understanding that if we keep grinding and keep working we’re going to give ourselves a chance to play really good basketball.”
That’s precisely what the No. 9 seed Bengals did at the University of Utah. They grinded at both ends of the floor, never letting favored Orem get comfortable and held on for the 55-53 win as Orem missed a difficult shot at the rim at the buzzer.
With the win, Brighton advances to the semifinals for the first time since 2015, when it lost to Layton in the championship. It will face region foe Highland at 7:20 p.m.
“I thought our toughness and togetherness tonight, we didn’t get rattled, and that’s what you get when, when you have six seniors. We’ve got a veteran crew, they’ve been through battles on the football field, baseball field, and we got a whole lot of multi-sport athletes, and the stage wasn’t too big for them.”
Josh Mawhinney and Bradley Easton each scored 15 points to lead Brighton as they combined to shoot 12 of 21 from the field.
As a team, Brighton shot 53% from the field while holding Orem to just 38%.
Brighton led for most of the second quarter, and all of the third, but not by much as Orem kept cutting into a Bengal lead that was as high as 25-16 late in the second quarter.
In the fourth quarter, though, on three different occasions, Orem took a lead and seemed poised to potentially pull away with the win. To Brighton’s credit, it responded each time.
The scariest moment for Brighton came when it fell behind 48-45 on a rebound putback from Simeon Suguturaga, who led Orem with 15 points.
Mawhinney responded at the other end with a tough double-clutch finish in track in the lane to cut Orem’s lead to 48-47 with 3:01 remaining. The Bengals got stops defensively on Orem’s next two possessions, while offensively they converted at the other end.
Easton’s layup at the 2:23 mark but Brighton ahead 49-48, and then Mawhinney converted a 3-point play with 1:51 left for the 52-48 lead.
Orem responded to Brighton’s 5-0 run with a 5-0 run of its own over the next minute, with Suguturaga finishing at the rim with a great post-up move, and then Jax Allen converting a 3-point play with 48 seconds remaining for the 43-52 lead.
Brighton worked the shot clock down to 19 seconds and regained the lead as Creighton Evers hit a floater in the lane that bounced off the rim three times before falling through the hoop for the 54-53.
Gardner immediately called his final timeout.
“We hang our hat on our defense and rebounding. We knew we’d put ourselves in position now, we wanted to regroup. We only played five guys tonight for the most part, and we wanted to take a breather, regroup and we needed to hang our hat on what allowed us to be successful,” said Gardner.
Out of that timeout, Case Beames was tasked with defending Orem’s Chance Dastrup and forced him into a traveling with tough defense around the perimeter with 5.8 seconds remaining.
“He’s such an elite athlete that he’s able to be successful and find success. Look, this is the kid that had surgery in November for his broken collarbone for football, and we didn’t get him back until midseason. He’s just kept working at it,” said Gardner. “Case was able to use his length and speed, his quickness, to stay in front of him and disrupt that. We’re proud of him, all right.”
After a mix-up at the table on the foul count that originally sent Easton to the line, it was Mawhinney who stepped to the free-throw line with five seconds remaining to try and pad the lead. He only made 1 of 2 shots, but Orem’s designed play at the other end on a lob toward the basket bounced off the rim as Brighton’s players stormed the floor in celebration.
“And I think right now, we were playing really good basketball. We’re fortunate our league is as good as there is top to bottom. You’ve got to have yourself ready to go night in and night out. We were exposed a number of times, and we learned from every loss, and we learned from every win,” said Gardner.
Timpview 61, Alta 51
Through three quarters of Tuesday’s final 5A quarterfinal game in the boys basketball state tournament, Timpview and Alta were near equals where it mattered most — on the scoreboard.
The No. 3-seeded T-Birds held just a two-point lead over the No. 6-seeded Hawks at the end of the third period and had been the better team but only just, despite entering the game as the clear favorite and boasting a visible advantage in both size and length.
Alta had, via a combination of timely 3-point shooting, excellence at the free throw line and bench scoring, managed to stay close despite being smaller at every single position on the court — close enough even to believe that an upset was possible.
The final eight minutes of the game couldn’t have been much different than the first 24 though, as Timpview’s advantages took effect in a big way.
Timpview outscored Alta 19-11 in the final frame en route to a 61-51 victory.
Led by 6-foot-6 forward Dean Rueckert, who scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, Timpview withstood every push from Alta and secured its place in the 5A semifinals.
“Just really proud of our composure,” Timpview head coach Izzy Ingle said. “We kind of lost it a little bit towards the end of third (quarter) with a technical and they got seven free throws on one possession and made all of them so we went from an 11 point game to a four point game. … I think last year’s team probably would have folded once we lost that momentum, but I think our guys did a really good job coming together, keeping their composure and just kind of grabbing it (momentum) coming back out into the fourth.”
As noted by Ingle, Alta capitalized on a lack of composure by Timpview late in the third, a stretch that saw Alta point guard Dash Reiser score seven straight points at the free throw line, courtesy of two Timpview fouls and a T-Birds technical.
Timpview responded to that run in convincing fashion, though, with an 11-3 run to start the fourth quarter.
Rueckert was especially key during that stretch.
“We weren’t doing a great job getting our shots,” Ingle said. “They were mixing their defenses, so we just put the ball in Dean’s hands and let our best player go. Told him to make a play or make a read and he made the shot or found the open guy. He’s just a phenomenal player.”
Despite the 18 points from Rueckert and another 18 from Callen Tollestrup, Timpview didn’t play as well as it had grown accustomed to playing for the majority of the season.
Entering the game, the T-Birds were 19-5 overall and 12 of their previous 13 wins had come by at least 10 points. Alta had something to do with that, with the Hawks’ physical play bothering the T-Birds at times, leading to some visible frustration.
Timpview finished with 29 free throw attempts due to 22 Alta fouls.
“We are kind of used to it,” Ingle said. “We’re really big. We have a lot of size and a lot of length, so we don’t really get very many calls. You can’t see what a 5-foot-7 seven kid is doing all the time, so our guys are getting used to it. They’re getting pushed and bumped and stuff.
“It happens a lot and we do get frustrated, but they’ve kind of already been through it. We’re bigger and longer so we’re not gonna get calls. We have to deal with it.”
In the end, Timpview’s size and length proved too much for Alta. The T-Birds finished with 10 blocks and outrebounded the Hawks 39-25.
The Hawks were simply unable to keep up using the 3-point line (Alta shot just 8 of 25 from behind the arc). Reiser, Alta’s leading scorer this season, scored 17 points but made only 4 for 14 shot attempts.
Timpview will play No. 2-seed Olympus in the 5A semifinals Wednesday night, and the Titans present a significant challenge, Ingle said.
“They always have the best fan support and have one of the best coaches,” he said, referring to Olympus’ Matt Barnes. “He always has his players doing the right thing.”
Olympus 70, Springville 56
After watching No. 1 Orem go down just before it took the floor in Tuesday’s 5A quarterfinal, Olympus had to grind to avoid being second top seed to fall at University of Utah.
Leading by just two points early in the fourth quarter, No. 2 Olympus got big 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions from Gavin Lowe and Luke Owen as it slowly started to full away by dominating the offensive glass en route to the 70-56 victory over No. 7 Springville.
Olympus had just two offensive rebounds at the half, but added nine more in the second half leading to 16 second-chance points in the emphatic victory.
With the win, Olympus advances to Wednesday night’s semifinal against the winner of Timpview-Alta at 9 p.m.
“They care about making winning play,” said Olympus coach Matt Barnes. “I was just proud of how tough we were and how we competed.”
Like he’s done all year, Olympus guard Gavin Lowe was sensational, going off for a career-high 31 points to go along with six rebounds, five assists and two steals. And oh yeah, he had one turnover in 32 minutes.
“Night in and night out it’s a war. Gavin, he’s he just a warrior and just so tough. He just finds ways to score even though teams make it tough on him and he goes for 31 with one turnover,” said Barnes. “Obviously Gavin is our leader, everything runs from Gavin. There’s a lot of pressure on him being the only guy back that played last year.”
As well as Olympus played, Springville was right there with the defending state champs only trailing 49-44 after three quarters. Mason Hansen opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 49-47. There were opportunities to cut into the lead further as the Titans missed their first four shots of the fourth quarter.
Olympus’ fifth miss of the quarter ended In a Ty Goldsberry offensive rebound, which he quickly kicked out to Lowe at the top of the key. Lowe buried the deep 3 for the 52-47 lead.
On the Titans next possessions, Luke Owen buried a corner three stretching the lead to 55-47.
Springville hung around for a bit longer, but Olympus kept corralling offensive rebounds that lead to second-chance points as it pulled away for its 22nd win of the season.
Olympus finished the game with a 40-20 edge scoring in the paint and just five turnovers as a team compared to 14 for Springville.
While Lowe was going off for a career high — and inching closer to 1,000 career points — Olympus got great contribution from three other starters. Owen recorded 12 points and seven rebounds, while Caden Jackson added 11 points and Goldsberry chipped in with 10 points.
All four of Goldsberry’s rebounds were on the offensive glass in the second half.
Olympus became the third straight Region 6 team to win their quarterfinal on Tuesday, something Barnes wasn’t surprise by.
“So far, it’s a testament to our league, our league is really good. We talked about that. And obviously, you know, we found ways to three teams to win so far,” said Barnes
Highland 74, Bountiful 53
On paper, Tuesday’s 5A quarterfinal between No. 4 Highland and No. 5 Bountiful had all the makings of an intriguing playoff game.
Not only was their seeding similar, but both teams had also reached the 20-win plateau. Plus, their quarterfinal game last year was tight, with Highland pulling away late for the 6-point win.
This year’s showdown was anything but close as Highland dominated in a 74-53 win.
Leading by 10 at the half, Highland came out red hot in the third and buried six 3-pointers in racing to a 26-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Rams finished 11 of 23 from 3-point range, winning for the fifth time this year by 20-plus points.
For Bountiful, it was the program’s worst loss since an 86-55 preseason loss to Lone Peak back in 2021.
Highland coach Chris Jones said his team’s success was all about how they dealt with Bountiful’s chaotic approach.
“The way they play defense is they want to turn you over. They want to make the game a frantic, up- and-down, crazy game. And we showed our guys on film, if you just take care of the ball, and if you’ll make one or two passes, you’ll shoot wide open shots all game long, and you don’t give it to them,” said Jones.
Highland only knocked down 3-of-11 3-pointers in the first half, but in the third quarter it drained 6 of 8.
“And in the third quarter, we just got in the lane and then we made them. It’s one thing to get them, but then you got to make them. It’s like getting a 5-footer for birdie, hell yeah, you’re excited, but then when you miss it, you got to settle for par,” said Jones.
Charlie Hodge, Bodie Dodge, Jack Anderton, Soren Ries and Jordan Oberholtzer all made two 3-pointers in the dominant shooting performance. Anderton led Highland with 15 points, with Dodge chipping in with 13 and Ries finishing with 12 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.
“Soren was a monster around the basket: 12 rebounds, four blocks. People have a hard time scoring against this around the rim, he led the state in blocks,” said Jones.
Perhaps the biggest key, according to Jones, was how his guards dealt with the pressure of Bountiful’s defensive chaos.
Even though Highland did finish with 16 turnovers, which led to 20 second-chance points, a big chunk of that damage came late in the game with the outcome well in hand.
Jones said his guards Isaiah Drisdom and Jordan Oberholtzer handed the chaos extremely well throughout the game as Highland advanced to the semifinals for the second-straight year.
“The way they play defense, they scrap, they steal it, they’re doubling you, they’re tripling you. They want to make the game nuts, and we can play that way. I got great guards,” said Jones.
Highland finished the game shooting 60% from the field while holding Bountiful to 39% shooting. Teams often struggle to shoot in the first game at big college venues, but not Highland on Tuesday.
Jones has no idea if it has anything to do with his philosophy of not practicing on Saturday, but it’s something he’s done all season.
“All year long, I told them, you got to have juice, you got to have energy, you got to have some Mojo,” said Jones. “They’re going to be up till 1 o’clock or 2 in the morning on Friday night, as they should, they’re high school kids. So I’m not going to get them up at 8:30 in the morning. If they don’t want to be there, I don’t want to be there.”
Monday practices are pretty intense as a result, but the players have responded well all season as Highland will carry a 22-3 record into Wednesday’s semifinals against the Orem-Brighton winner at 7:20 p.m.