High school basketball: Repeat titles X 2

They say that there's few things more difficult in sports than repeating as champions.

The Provo Bulldogs and Lone Peak Knights boys basketball teams would like to vouch for the truthfulness of that statement. As talented as both teams are, and even though both began the season among the favorites to win the 4A and 5A basketball titles, the Knights and Bulldogs still had to overcome several obstacles and close calls to accomplish the rare feat.

Playing an entire season with high expectations and a target on your back is not an easy burden to carry for high school athletes. Still, the players and coaches from Lone Peak and Provo handled the pressure well, survived a few tough stretches and played clutch basketball last week at the Dee Events Center in Ogden to bring the two basketball titles back to Utah County.

"For us, it was just a matter of having enough juice left in the tank," Lone Peak coach Quincy Lewis said following Saturday's win over Bingham in the 5A championship game.

The Knights also had to remind themselves a time or two during the season that their preseason national ranking, mystique, reputation and extremely talented roster alone were not going to get them that second-straight state title. Also, with one returning starter out and three new starters in the lineup, they were humbled early by opening the season with a loss at home to Provo. Lewis was challenged from the first day of camp with keeping his players focused and grounded.

"We had to make them believe that the ring is more important than the scholarship, and they did," Lewis said.

Lone Peak's players tried to ignore all the hype surrounding their team, but it was still hard to hide from. Once region play began, Lewis cut off media access to his players and they were instructed not to read or watch media reports on their team until the season was over.

"He told us not to look at the standings and not to read the papers, and that helped us stay a lot more focused and really helped us get this done," Knights senior forward Bracken Funk said.

As powerful as Lone Peak's line-up is, the Knights still had to survive an enormous scare from the Davis Darts in the 5A semifinals. The Darts led for most of the game, forced overtime with a free-throw late, and then had a final shot to win in overtime. Lone Peak prevailed on a tough jumper by Tyler Haws with 2.5 seconds left in the second overtime.

"No team tested us this year as much mentally as they did," Lewis said. "They might be the best team that we've played in the past five years."