The 6A boys basketball state tournament quarterfinal games are taking place at the University of Utah on Thursday, and here’s a recap of those games, with Lehi, Westlake and American Fork prevailing in the first three games. This story will be updated.
Amercian Fork 46, Herriman 39
It’s been a minute since American Fork basketball reached a final four, but the Cavemen punched their ticket back to the semifinals with a dominant defensive performance on Wednesday.
No. 2 seed American Fork held No. 10 seed Herriman to 32% shooting and just 22 points in the first three quarter and as it marched to a convincing 46-39 victory in the 6A quarterfinals at the University of Utah.
With the win in a game it never trailed, American Fork advances into Thursday’s semifinals for the first time since 2023 and will face the winner of Bingham-Mountain Ridge at 9 p.m. It will be
“We worked really hard in keeping the guy in front of us,” said American Fork coach Ryan Cuff about the key defensively. “We switched a lot. We trust that all our guys can keep guys in front of them. Everybody had a chance to guard Carlo (Mulford), it’s not just one guy.”
Cuff said that Herriman’s Carlo Mulford is such a handful defensively when he gets into the lane as it opens up the offensively options so much. By switching, Cuff though they were able to take away Herriman’s strength.
As well as American Fork played defensively in the first half in limiting Herriman to just 27% shooting, the Cavemen weren’t that much better honestly and only led 17-15 at the half.
Cuff said his team made adjustments at the half, and attacked Herriman differently, extending the lead to 34-22 by the end of the third quarter.
“We just were able to get sets that they didn’t necessarily know and that was a huge deal,” said Cuff. “I think can carry over to anybody else we play and we want people to worry about us.”
Whether it was during the slow first half, or the stronger second half, offensively American Fork used its size and dominated the interior outscoring Herriman 34-14 in the paint.
A big part of the was the dribble penetration of Bryce Mella, who finished 10 of 16 from the field for a game-high 22 points.
“He’s unselfish and he can be a little bit more selfish and that’s a positive. He’s just a team guy so he’s a joy to coach and he really wants to get other guys involved, too,” said Cuff. “It’s a time where tournament-wise, he’s going to have to take over and get himself to the foul line a little bit more and get downhill and do a little bit more for us on the offensive end.”
Jax Clark finished with eight points and eight rebounds.
Westlake 82, Lone Peak 67
Back-to-back losses to end the regular season is never ideal, especially for a No. 1 seed with championship expectations.
Westlake coach Nate Carling believes those late-season losses have been a blessing in disguise.
After a 30-point win in the opening round of the 6A state tournament, Westlake trounced No. 8 seed Lone Peak 82-67 on Wednesday in the 6A quarterfinals to advance to its first semifinals since 2022.
Malika Sika poured in 26 points — one shy of a career high — on 6-of-7 shooting from 3-point range and Graydin Anderson chipped in with 21 points the lead the way for the once-again dominant Thunder.
“You need to feel what it’s like, you know? You need to recognize you’re vulnerable, but also teams try to expose things in you and you need to see. I’d rather be exposed two weeks ago than this week,” said Westlake coach Nate Carling. “Things happen for a reason.”
Carling said practices after those back-to-back losses to Mountain Ridge and Herriman were outstanding, which has helped propel the Thunder into the semis.
“These kids are tremendous character, tremendous families, and they show up every practice. When you get to this level, you’re going to fall back to your standard, to what you do every day. Especially in a three-day tournament like this, back-to-back-to-back, you’re going to be who you are every day,” said Carling.
Westlake fell behind early to Lone Peak 19-9, but it responded with a 19-0 run over a seven-minute stretch and never trailed again.
With the win, Westlake advances to the 6A semifinals on Thursday’s and will face No.13 seed Lehi at 7:20 p.m.
For Westlake, it the ball about as well as any team could hope for on the big stage at the University of Utah.
Led by Sika, it shot 50% from the field (27 of 54), 53% from 3-point range (9 of 17) and 90% from the free throw line (19 of 21). That’s a winning recipe in any game and on any court.
Sika’s performance was particularly special, and the timing is perfect. In the two losses to end the season, Sika scored a combined 16 points on 5 of 15 shooting and 1 of 4 from 3-point range.
He found his shooting touch against Lone Peak in an unforgettable performance.
“He’s a heck of an athlete, isn’t he? And he’s been on a roll all year long from football right into basketball. He’s just such a tough kid and the sky’s the limit for him. I’m really proud the way he stepped up and got hitting shots there for us,” said Carling. “He was instrumental in kind of getting us that lead that we needed in the second quarter.”
Westlake pushed the lead to all the way to 21 points midway through the fourth quarter, but underdog Lone Peak didn’t get discouraged and cut the lead to single digits in the final minutes and even had a good look at a 3-pointer that could’ve but the lead to seven points.
Crew Fotheringham led Lone Peak in the loss with 14 points, with Jayden Hughes adding 13.
Walker Jensen and Brody Thompson chipped in with 10 apiece for Westlake.
Lehi 67, Farmington 59
From the outside, the narrative surrounding Lehi boys basketball heading into the 6A state tournament was that of an up-and-down team with a sub-.500 record with minimal expectations.
On the inside though, Lehi coach Reed Bromley believed his team was trending in the right direction all year, and heading into the playoffs had a legit shot at making a run.
Bromley was right.
A week after bouncing No. 4 seed Layton in the second round, the 13th-seed Pioneers put together a 67-59 wire-to-wire victory over No. 12 Farmington in Wednesday’s quarterfinals at the University of Utah.
Led by 29 points from Tuk Howe on 12-of-14 shooting, Lehi led as many as 14 points in the third quarter and held off a Farmington push early in the fourth that cut the lead to 52-50.
With the win, Lehi advances to Thusday’s 6A semifinal at 7:20 p.m. where it will take on the winner of the Westlake-Lone Peak game.
Even with two straight playoff wins, the Pioneers remain two games under .500 with an 11-13 record, but Bromley believes it’s very deceiving. His team played the third-toughest schedule in 6A.
“Our record does not reflect, and never has. And I’ve told them that,” said Bromley.
“I feel like we’ve been steadily improving. And I just am really proud of everybody that’s taken a step, because I can look at every single guy there and you’ve seen improvement. And a lot of it is just trusting each other and recognizing that every game’s going to take on its own personality and we gotta be ready to step up, like what happened today,” said Bromley.
Howe is the perfect example of that. The junior eclipsed 19 points just once during the regular season, averaging 9.4 points, but in the two playoff games he scored 20 points against Layton and a career-high 29 against Farmington.
Lehi needed Howe to step up because leading scorer Ashton Shewell, who leads the team averaging 21.3 points, was a non-factor after halftime because of foul trouble. After scoring 12 points at the half, he got into early foul trouble in the third quarter and was on the bench for eight straight minutes. He only played 21 minutes.
Farmington made its big push with Shewell on the bench.
Trailing 41-27 midway through the third quarter, Farmington methodically cut the lead to 50-47 by the end of the third as Malakai Tobler hit two big 3-pointers and then Brycen Rudolph added one of his own.
“We started out so hot, everything’s flying, and then we had about a six-minute stretch where we’re getting back cut … we’re not getting out to shooters, we’re losing them in transition, we’re not boxing out, and all of a sudden it’s a ball game,” said Bromley.
Tobler drained another three early in the fourth, trimming the lead to 52-50, but that was as close at the Phoenix could get Tillman Juish and Howe responded with 3s of their own to stretch the lead back to 63-52.
“But for everybody else to step up, I’m just really, really proud of them. Thought we executed well,” said Bromley.
Lehi finished the game shooting 50%, including 8 of 19 from 3-point range. Conversely, Farmington shot 38% and 7 of 24 from behind the arc.