5A boys high school basketball: Lone Peak gets ugly first-round win

WEST VALLEY CITY — By the standards they've established in their basketball program, the Lone Peak Knights had a horrendous start in the first round of the 5A state tournament on Monday.

They scored six points, made one basket and found themselves down by five points to Jordan, Region 2's fourth-place team, in the first 10 minutes of their tournament game. The slow start even made the Knights consider the unthinkable.

"The biggest thing when you get in this type of environment and situation is there's this big button, and it's red, and it says panic on it," said Lone Peak coach Quincy Lewis. "You want to push it. You're dying to push it. But you just got to go in there with an even keel and give your kids confidence and continue to play."

Fortunately for the Knights, they avoided the temptation to push the dreaded panic button, and rallied to a 50-38 win over the Beetdiggers. Lone Peak advances to play Riverton in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Lone Peak, after scoring six points in the game's first 10 minutes, really could have been in a deeper hole against Jordan. But a combination of the play of Nate Austin and defensive prowess of Dillon Smith and Brandon Reeves kept the Beetdiggers from creating too much of a lead.

Austin finished with 19 points and seven rebounds and was the only Knight to do much on offense in the first half. Smith helped hold Jordan forward Jordan Bernardo to just three points.

"I thought Nate Austin really showed what he is capable of tonight," Lewis said. "The key to the game was early when they had a chance to get up on us eight or nine, Dillon Smith and Brandon Reeves just played outstanding defense."

The Knights were able to take the lead in the first half, and then blew the game open with a 19-2 run in the third quarter. Tyler Haws took control, scoring Lone Peak's first seven points after halftime and he finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and five steals.

Lone Peak didn't earn many style points with its victory, but Austin said having to grind out the win will probably help the Knights while they try to defend their 5A title this week.

"It was good for us to face some adversity," Austin said. "I think that we were kind of humbled a little bit. But our team just keeps fighting and I think the scoreboard shows it."

The Knights shot 60 percent from the field in the second half while holding the Beetdiggers to just 32 percent.

Curt Follett got Jordan off to a great start, making three 3-pointers in the first quarter and he finished with 14 points. Follett also had six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Colton Burgon chipped in 12 points for the Beetdiggers.

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