5A high school basketball: Copper Hills overwhelms West

OGDEN — Less than twenty-four hours after nearly blowing a huge lead against Brighton, Copper Hills found itself in the exact same position Wednesday afternoon in the 5A quarterfinals at the Dee Events Center. This time, the Grizzlies didn't blow it.

Copper Hills overwhelmed cold-shooting West from the opening tip-off and never let up, opening up a 35-point lead at one point on its way to a 69-46 victory.

"We got a little loose and wanted to shoot as much as we could, and we did and the shots fell thankfully," said Copper Hills' Steven Larson, whose team shot 50 percent compared to 29 for the Panthers.

Larson led the way for Copper Hills in a dominant performance in which he made 12 of 19 shots and finished with a game-high 28 points. Twelve of those points came in the opening quarter as the Grizzlies jumped out to a 18-6 lead.

"We make no secrets about it, we're going to throw it into Steven as many times as we can. Until a team stops him," said Copper Hills coach Kent Smith.

West never could, and now the Grizzlies are in their first 5A semifinal since winning the state championship back in 2000. They will face Region 1 champion Davis on Friday at 2:15 p.m.

The game got away quickly from West, last year's 4A state champs. It trailed by 12 after the first quarter, 19 at the half and 30 at the end of the third quarter.

"We didn't want that to happen again," said Larson, whose team beat Brighton on Tuesday despite blowing a 20-point first-half lead. "We just played hard the whole game instead of quitting after the second quarter."

The result was an overwhelming performance. Copper Hills outrebounded West 48-31, enjoyed a 42-32 advantage in the paint and a 27-11 advantage on second-chance points. That dominance, combined with West's 1-of-20 shooting from 3-point range led to one of the most lopsided 5A quarterfinals in recent memory.

Smith said the match-up made it all possible.

"They were a lot quicker (defensively) than Brighton, and we have quickness to match that," said Smith. "What we struggled with at Brighton was some of the physical play, but we figured that out in the fourth quarter of Brighton."

That should help Copper Hills against a much more physical Davis team on Friday. A tough preseason schedule highlighted by Alta, Brighton, Lehi and Springville should help the Grizzlies as well.

"Our record was a little better than it was last year but our schedule was such an upgrade," said Smith. "We upgraded our schedule and that was for this week. We learned how to play tough games."

Josh Powell added 10 points for Copper Hills, while Tyrell Corbin led West with 14 points in the loss.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com