High school boys basketball: American Fork locks down defensively to beat Highland

In an appetizing opening game of the Corner Canyon Tournament on Thursday afternoon featuring one of 6A’s best against one of 5A’s best, American Fork’s second-half defense proved to be the difference.

American Fork held Highland to just 17 points in the second half as the Cavemen pulled away for the 57-48 victory in the first of six games at the tournament.

Jax Clark led the way for American Fork with 17 points, with Bridger Burnside adding 13.

After a 1-2 start to the season against tough competition, American Fork coach Ryan Cuff admits it was nice to get a win.

“No question, anytime you can get a win is huge. And we know everybody that we’re playing against in preseason, we respect them,” said Cuff. “That’s a really good team too, and so they’re hard to prepare against us, because they’re quick and fast. You want to keep it in front of you, but they can knock down shots too.”

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In the second half, those shots stopped dropping for Highland. It made four 3-pointers in the first half, but just one in the second half.

That allowed American Fork to stretch its 32-31 halftime lead to 45-40 by the end of the third quarter. A pair of 3-pointers early in the fourth by Bryce Mella and Ashton Hucks helped stretch the lead to 53-42 early in the fourth as it effectively put the game out of reach for Highland.

“I felt like we executed a little better (after halftime). They were switching and did a really good job the first half on switching on us and our motion game was kind of stagnant,” Cuff said.

Conversely, American Fork’s defense was much better after halftime, something Cuff was pleased to see as it’s something his team will deal with a lot throughout Region 3 play starting next month.

“Definitely a typical region-type matchup that we’re gonna see in our region that kind of spread you out, they’ll spread you out, try to either get a two or kick out and hit threes,” said Cuff.

While Highland’s threes weren’t dropping in the second half, they were for American Fork as it made five of its nine threes after halftime.

Burnside accounted for three of those 3-pointers in his best game of the season so far.

The win helped American Fork improve to 2-2 on the season in its first game since losing to Timpview 62-60 on a buzzer beater the night before Thanksgiving.

“It was huge to get a win, kind of back on the winning side, and the next couple of games this week, it’s kind of a tournament atmosphere where (we need to) just survive in advance,” said Cuff. “It would’ve been nice to get the one against Timpview, but a lot of times I tell our guys if you win a game like that, you’ve arrived and we think we’re better than we are. Our practices have been really good since then, even though it was, you know, a buzzer beater.”

On the losing side, Jordan Oberholtzer led Highland with 18 points, with Bodie Dodge adding 11. American Fork’s collapsing defense helped neutralize Highland big man Soren Ries, who was held to four points.