5A high school basketball: Copper Hills withstands Brighton's second half rally for 5A playoff victory

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — It took one bad quarter for things to start looking problematic for Copper Hills.

The Grizzlies had built up a 20 point first half lead and watched helplessly as Brighton clawed and scratched its way out of that hole and went ahead by the end of the third quarter. Given how badly the Bengals shredded their defense when the two teams played in December, it was not a good sign for Copper Hills.

Steven Larson felt determined to not let the fourth quarter play out in similar fashion.

"We knew we had to win or go home," the Grizzlies center said. "So we decided to win."

Larson went to work to turn those victory hopes into reality. He scored 11 of his game-high 28 points during the final quarter to lift Copper Hills to a 67-57 victory over the No. 2 seeded Bengals in the first round of the 5A boys basketball tournament on Tuesday night.

The Grizzlies (15-8) avenged an 89-82 loss to Brighton (16-6) in the preseason and won their fifth straight game overall.

It didn't look like a happy ending was in store for Copper Hills when it blew a huge early lead.

Trailing 33-13 with 3:34 left before halftime, Jordan Wertz converted a four-point play to park a 11-2 run to help the Bengals cut the lead to 36-24 going into the locker room.

Brighton picked right up where it left off in the third quarter. Sam Wunderli scored back-to-back layups and hit a pair of free throws to help the Bengals score on four straight possessions and ignited a 18-2 run. Xan Ricketts scored a layup to cap off the run to give Brighton its first lead of the game at 42-40 with 1:35 left in the quarter.

The Bengals still led 45-44 at the start of the fourth when Austin Sheppick scored a layup 30 seconds into the quarter to help Copper Hills regain the lead.

Both teams traded baskets until Corbin Miller knocked down a jumper to cut the Grizzlies lead to 55-54 with 2:50 remaining. At that point, Larson made sure the rest of the game belonged to Copper Hills.

He hit four free throws and converted a layup to fuel a 9-0 run that pushed his team's lead to 64-54 with 54 seconds left. Brighton's efforts to rally in the final minute came up short amid several missed 3-pointers.

After giving up 89 points to the Bengals in the preseason, the Grizzlies put more emphasis on defense this time around.