High school boys basketball: Bingham, Westlake advance to 6A championship game

Bingham 69, American Fork 65 (OT)

“What a game” was all that could really be uttered by anyone in the Huntsman Center Thursday night as No. 2 American Fork and No. 3 Bingham needed overtime to decide who was moving on to the boys 6A championship.

In the end it was the Miners who held true to their furious comeback to walk away with a 69-65 win.

American Fork dominated the game, leading by 17 with 6:30 left to play in the third quarter, but Bingham found its groove as the quarter wound down and ended up outscoring the Cavemen 20-13 to cut the lead down to six entering the fourth quarter.

In that final quarter, Luke West was in a world of his own, pouring in points in all varieties to spark the Miner offense. Meanwhile, Bingham’s defense turned up the energy and recorded back-to-back blocks and then drew an offensive foul to keep the Cavemen from matching the points.

It honestly looked like Bingham had turned the corner so much that it was going to win in regulation, but then Ashton Hucks tossed up a 3-pointer from the far corner with less than a second left that sent the game into overtime at 59-59.

From there, Bingham was just not backing down and held on for the win, and the Miners will now play No. 1 Westlake for the title Friday at 8:30 p.m.

“The absolute fight in this team, no question they always play hard and the resilience that they showed was so fun for a coach to watch,” said Bingham’s Kyle Straatman.

“I’m just so proud of the guys, and my assistant coaches were right on point with a lot of calls helping me out.”

West finished with a double-double that included 32 points and 15 rebounds while Parker Snedaker added 15 points.

Jax Clark led American Fork with 24 points and seven rebounds and Bryce Mella had 19 points and nine boards.

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Westlake 60, Lehi 52

No. 13 seed Lehi’s Cinderella run ended Thursday night at the hands of No. 1 Westlake in the 6A boys state semifinals.

With the 60-52 victory, the Thunder advance to the championship game Friday at 8:30 p.m.

The Pioneers battled throughout the game but a strong second quarter by the Thunder was the difference maker.

After a physical first quarter of play, Lehi led 13-12. Neither team had the momentum at this point and the physicality carried over in the next eight minutes, where it was 28-26 in favor of Westlake.

But then, Lincoln Norwood hit a nothing but net 3-pointer and Brody Thompson tossed in a shot at the buzzer to build the Thunder lead out to 33-26.

That advantage proved enough as the Pioneers got close but never close enough to get the lead back.

“Just really impressed with Lehi. We played them three months ago and they just improved tremendously,” said Westlake coach Nate Carling.

“Well-coached team, tough kids, so they gave us everything we could handle.”

Lehi’s Ashton Shewell outscored everyone in the first half, putting up 18 points, including three 3-pointers. The challenge was that Shewell was producing most of the Pioneers’ offense, so when he slowed down, so did that production.

“I mean, Shewell maybe cooled down for a minute. It maybe gave us a minute to kind of make a little run because he sure was hot in the first half, but, you know…we’ve been really good in those middle quarters for sure," Carling said.

Westlake extended its lead to nine, 47-38, in the third quarter as things got a bit chippy with some hard fouls and eventually a fragrant foul by Lehi, but both teams were able to settle in for a fun fourth quarter as Lehi pushed all it could over the final stretch to make things fun, but just couldn’t get over the hump.

Norwood and Thompson led the Thunder with 15 points each and combined for 13 rebounds. Malik Sika and Graydin Anderson added 11 points, while Walker Jensen nabbed eight boards.

“Any one of us on our 10-guy roster can come in and play a full game and score, and it doesn’t matter to any of us who that is,” Norwood said. “I could score zero points. I don’t care as long as I’m playing for my team, we’re playing for each other.

“We just believe in ourselves, and we believe in our game plan and what we’re going to do. Going to the championships is just something you dream about, so to do it my in my senior year is just awesome.”

Shewell finished with a double-double of 24 points and 10 rebounds for Lehi, while Trevor Anderson added 10 points of his own.

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