Lehi Sports
Lehi boys secure Region 3 crown; Lewis breaks all-time scoring records
The Lehi boys basketball team suffered a one-point loss at Lone Peak before earning a taut victory at Pleasant Grove to close out the regular season and secure the Region 3 championship.
This is an even more remarkable accomplishment given that this is the first year for the Pioneers in 6A and Lehi is the smallest school in the classification by several hundred students. In addition, Region 3 is widely acknowledged as the toughest region top to bottom in the state.
Technically the Pioneers (19-4) share the league title with American Fork (15-8), as both teams finished the region season with 8-2 records – further evidence of the challenges posed by the programs they had to play. Each school was awarded a trophy.
However, Lehi won both of the rugged head-to-head contests with the Cavemen this year by double-digit margins.
The No. 2 Pioneers will host the winner of No. 15 Westlake (7-16) versus No. 18 Mountain Ridge (8-15) on Friday (Feb. 23) at home at 7 p.m.
If they advance to the quarterfinals on Feb. 26, they will face the winner of No. 10 Lone Peak (11-11) and No. 7 Riverton (16-7) at 12:50 p.m. at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Center.
New records set, and counting
With at least two and as many as five games left to play, senior guard Cooper Lewis surpassed both the all-time single-season and career scoring records for the Pioneers in back-to-back contests.
On Friday (Feb. 9), he rolled by the previous high for one season of 537 points set by Evaristo Soares 48 years ago in 1975-1976, when Lehi was a 2A school. Lewis reached 547 points with his production that night, and the total now stands at 625.
The next game (Feb. 13), he broke Tanner Nygren’s career points total of 1,395 points completed in 2015 with a career mark of 1,430 following that contest, now at 1,470 heading into the tournament.
After Friday’s game (Feb. 16), Lewis ranked first in Class 6A at 27.3 points per game, 6.2 more than the next closest competitor; he was also first in threes made per game at 4.1 and had tallied 32 more than the next closest mark; he was 11th in assists per game at 3.9 and second in steals with 47 (2.0 spg).
Feb. 13: Lone Peak 63, Lehi 62
After playing brilliantly in an emotional victory over Skyridgethe previous Friday, the Pioneers did not start well against the Knights on the road. They fell behind 13-17 after the first quarter and 29-37 at the half.
The Lone Peak advantage got as wide as 15 points with 10minutes left in the contest. With his teammates struggling to find the hoop, Lewis shouldered the scoring load throughout the night and spearheaded a 17-2 spurt over a four-minute stretch to knot the tally at 50-all with 6:07 to play.
He got the rally started with one of his four triples in the game, then made a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup. The Knights next made their lone basket of the stretch. After a turnover, Lewis grabbed a defensive board and fed it to senior forward Gabe Cowan for a layup.
He was awarded a free throw as well and missed it, but senior forward Kaleb Moore got the offensive board and sent it to Lewis, who sank another trey. A Cowan steal and a rebound by senior forward Grayson Brousseau ended the next two Lone Peak possessions.
Junior wing Easton Hawkins then got a putback bucket. Cowan made another steal at the opposite end and Lewis converted on the turnover with a third long bomb. A turnaround inside shot by Brousseau completed the comeback.
Lehi got the lead with 2:55 remaining as Brousseau drove into the paint and then dished to senior guard Bryson Bromley coming in the back door for a layup. It went back and forth over the next couple of minutes, but a Lewis jumper had the Pioneers ahead 62-61 with 19 seconds left.
Lone Peak got the lead back with two free throws and 9.9 seconds on the clock. Lehi got the ball down in scoring position, but fouls committed weren’t called and the shot attempts didn’t fall, allowing the Knights to escape with the one-point win.
Lewis tallied 38 points plus three rebounds, five assists, two steals, one block and no turnovers in another superlative outing.Bromley hit two big threes and finished with eight points, four boards, two assists and a block.
Brousseau also had eight points along with three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Hawkins had six points with three boards. Cowan pulled down seven rebounds to go with two assists, two steals and a block. Moore had three boards.
The one place where the team was consistent was at the charity stripe, where the Pioneers completed 10-of-11 (91%). They also had just five turnovers in the contest, while rebounds and fouls called were about even.
“We started out slow and got in a hole, and no one can afford to do that in this region,” said Coach Quincy Lewis. “However, we showed great heart in coming back to take the lead with contributions from everyone.
“We had our chances to win at the end and it just didn’t go our way,” he added. “We’re looking forward to what’s next.”
Feb. 16: Lehi 84, Pleasant Grove 79
The Pioneers had to find a way to prevail on the road against the Vikings, who were celebrating their Senior Night as the regular season concluded.
This game featured multiple lead changes, ties and runs by both squads. They dueled back and forth during the first quarter, but Pleasant Grove made a great shot from deep at the buzzer to take the lead 19-16 at the end of the period.
The Vikings built on that momentum and pulled ahead 30-18 halfway through the second quarter. The Pioneers responded with toughened defense and rebounding plus great ball movement to finish the period on a 17-8 run.
Everyone contributed to the stops, boards and assists but Lewis did most of the damage at the net, scoring 15 of those 17 points including four triples in a row to reduce the deficit to just three points at the break, 35-38.
The battle continued in the second half with neither team getting ahead for long by more than a point or two and the lead switching often for the next 14 minutes.
Lehi didn’t create a five-point advantage until Brousseau made a layup off a Lewis steal with 1:49 remaining. After that, the Pioneers were able to hang on down the stretch to secure a hard-fought victory.
Lewis tallied 40 points including five treys and had three rebounds and three steals in the contest. Hawkins added 14 points including a perfect 7-of-7 from the charity stripe to go with three assists and two steals.
Bromley tallied eight points on a perfect shooting night, hitting all five attempts including a pair of 3-pointers. He also had three boards, seven assists and three steals as part of a very effective floor game.
Brousseau finished with 13 points, most of them coming at key moments in the game, and also had four boards and six assists. Cowan had a near double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds plus three assists.
The team had 20 assists on 26 field goals and converted 24-of-30 (80%) at the line. They shot 57 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc for the evening.
“Pleasant Grove is a great team and they’re hard to beat,” Cooper Lewis said. “They gave us their best shot on their Senior Night and we had to tighten everything down and win as a team.”
The player said the approach when they fell behind was the same one they’ve applied all season. “We take it one stop at a time,” he said. “We see who’s open and make the other team play.”
Coach Lewis agreed that it took effort from every player to get the result they wanted. “As a team, we showed great heart and toughness tonight,” he said.
“Bryson hit a couple of threes. Grayson was big in the second half. Gabe crashed the boards all night. Easton was perfect at the line, and our subs helped us when we needed them.
“This is a great accomplishment for our program and our kids to win a region championship our first year in 6A,” he added. “We’ve worked extremely hard during the season and the offseason to get here, but this is just the first of our goals.”
Finally, he paused for a moment to recognize his colleague and friend, Viking Coach Randy McAllister, who is retiring after 22 years at the school. “Tonight was his last home game and he’s had a great career here,” Coach Lewis said. “We wish him all the best going forward.”
