4A boys high school basketball: West advances to first title game since 1975

WEST VALLEY CITY — West High learned a lot about itself in two previous losses to Olympus this year. The players learned they don't have all the answers and that Olympus is much better than they gave them credit for.

"The first two games we tried to speed it up against them because we thought we were more athletic than them. It didn't work," said West guard Tyrell Corbin.

Relying on that perceived superior athleticism, West tried to match Olympus shot for shot in their two Region 6 encounters and lost by 18 and 19 points, respectively.

West mixed things up in the rematch Friday at the E Center, and now the Panthers will be playing for their first state championship since winning in 1975.

Demonstrating remarkable poise in the final three minutes, West scored the game's final 12 points to pull away from region rival Olympus for the 44-36 4A semifinal victory.

"We're used to being in tough situations coming from where we're from," said West's Chris Barnes, who led his team with 13 points and nine rebounds. "We know how to keep it under control and deal with it. They let their emotions get to them."

With the victory, West advances to today's 4A championship game at 4:30 p.m. It will face the winner of the Provo-Bountiful semifinal game.

In many respects, West has Olympus to thank for the midseason wake-up call.

"We started out the year 13-0, and going 13-0 it's really hard to get kids to (listen). We won on talent our first 13 games; Olympus gave us a wake-up call the first time they beat us," said West coach Bob Lyman. "It brought the kids together, but also woke them up. They've been much more coachable than when we were 13-0."

That coach-ability enabled the players to buy into the semifinal game plan of slowing things down. Lyman knew that playing a double-overtime quarterfinal game the night before, his kids probably wouldn't have the stamina to get into another track meet game with Olympus. So the Panthers slowed it down.

It served its purpose. It kept the game close and West was fresh to pull away down the stretch.

Olympus scored its last basket of the game with 2:56 remaining on a lay-up by Spencer Hille, putting the Titans ahead 36-32. Over the next minute and a half, West cut it to 36-34 on Jordan Tanner's lone basket of the game, leveled the score on a fast-break lay-up by Corbin and then went ahead for good on a driving lay-up by Ricardo Saldana.