5A boys high school basketball: West Jordan crushes Viewmont in opening round

WEST VALLEY CITY — This is how well things went for West Jordan in its 62-41 win over Viewmont in the first round of the 5A state tournament on Monday:

Point guard Mason Sawyer was attempting to inbound a pass under his basket early in the second quarter. He couldn't find anyone open, so Sawyer just bounced the ball off of the back of a Viewmont defender, stepped inbounds, scooped up the ball and scored a layup.

The play gave the Jaguars a 24-10 lead and exemplified how they had their way against Viewmont.

"The play wasn't working out, so I just made something happen I guess," said Sawyer, who noted he got the idea while watching a West Jordan junior varsity game. "It felt good."

The rest of the Jaguars were feeling just as well. Jordan Weirick led the way offensively, as he scored 15 points and had eight rebounds and six assists. The Boise State-bound Sawyer had 14 points and six assists and Tyson Holt had 10 points.

West Jordan went on a 13-2 run in the first quarter to take a 19-8 lead. They led by as many as 19 in the first half, and had their biggest lead of the game at 58-33 when Sawyer scored on a layup in the fourth quarter.

"I think all of our kids played pretty well," said West Jordan coach Scott Briggs. "Nobody tried to be heroic. They all just played solid basketball."

Rayes Gallegos keyed the team's defensive effort, as the Jaguars held the Vikings to 36 percent shooting from the field. Gallegos was matched up on Chase Christensen, Viewmont's leading scorer, and held him to just two points.

Gallegos only scored six points, but that hardly mattered considering how well he played on defense and how his teammates stepped up on offense. The Jaguars shot 59 percent from the field.

"Rayes Gallegos just worked his butt off," Briggs said. "Rayes was huge for us. It won't look that way in the scoring column, but for guys who know what we were trying to do he was gigantic."

The Jaguars have clearly come out of a mini-slump they went through in January and are playing like the state-title contender they were expected to be. They've won six straight games, and look to add to that total when they play Lehi in the 5A quarterfinals on Wednesday.

"We've done what coach says and that's try to get a little better each day and play our best basketball that we can in March," Sawyer said. "Hopefully that's what we're doing."

E-mail: aaragon@desnews.com