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American Fork's Tiger Cuff, center, gathers himself in the key in a 6A boys basketball state playoff game against Bingham on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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The American Fork student section reacts to a score during a 6A boys basketball state playoff game against Bingham on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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American Fork's Blake Rawson shoots over a Bingham defender during a 6A boys basketball state playoff game on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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American Fork's Xander Hale goes up for a shot against Bingham during a 6A boys basketball state playoff game on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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American Fork wanted another shot at Corner Canyon.

So did Bingham.

The No. 5 seed Cavemen and No. 12 seed Miners all have recent history with the defending 6A state champion Chargers. AF and Corner Canyon have split the past two state championships and Bingham ended its Region 2 schedule by scaring the Chargers before falling by two points.

On Friday, the Cavemen erupted on a 9-0 run to open the second half and locked down Bingham on the defensive end on their way to a 48-37 victory in the 6A second round.

Here comes another American Fork-Corner Canyon classic: The Cavemen (16-8) will play the No. 4 Chargers on Monday in a quarterfinal matchup at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

The two teams also met on Dec. 1 in an insanely physical matchup won by American Fork 67-65 with both teams missing star players. AF was without big man Blake Rawson and Corner Canyon’s star player and USC commit, Brody Kozlowski, was injured and didn’t play.

“We’ve played them a lot and have a lot of respect for them,” American Fork coach Ryan Cuff said. “We were both in situations early where we didn’t have all of our guys. In fact, we lost two of our players in that game (Reece Dent and Jake Mulholland) to injury and they had a kid that tore his ACL. We know it’s going to be a war and we wouldn’t want it any other way.”

On Friday, American Fork turned to its defense to get past an athletic Bingham team.

“The last time they played us Bingham scored 73 points (in a 73-67 Miners victory on Jan. 5),” Cuff said. “Our mindset right now is we want to be playing the best defense. Bingham is very aggressive and physical and they have a lot of seniors, which has some urgency. We wanted to control tempo and be able to do our thing.”

Tiger Cuff had five points in the first quarter, including a 3-point play, and the Cavemen carved out a 9-6 lead. The two teams went back and forth in the second. A 3-pointer from Gabe Sivulich pushed the Miners to a 14-11 lead but an 8-2 run for American Fork earned the home team a 19-16 advantage on back-to-back baskets from Rawson and Diego Mulford with 2:54 remaining in the half. The Cavemen stayed on top 21-18 at the break.

The American Fork defense got positively sticky in the third quarter and held Bingham without a field goal for all eight minutes. A turnover got the Cavemen into transition and Jared Shepherd spun in a pretty reverse layup for a 25-18 AF lead. Tiger Cuff nailed a 3-pointer and then drove in for a layup and the Cavemen completed the 9-0 run for a 30-18 advantage with 2:20 to play in the third. A triple by Mulholland brought the home crowd to their feet and American Fork took a 33-19 lead into the fourth quarter.

AF stretched its lead to 16, 35-19, The Miners didn’t score a field goal in the second half until a jumper from Luke West at the 5:33 mark of the fourth quarter, which cut the American Fork lead to 35-21. West’s bucket was the start of ten straight points from Bingham, which brought the visitors to trail 35-29 with 3:07 to play.

With 2:53 remaining, Tiger Cuff drove into the key, took contact and and scored. His 3-point play lifted AF to a seemingly safe 40-30 lead.

Tiger Cuff led the Cavemen with 16 points and Rawson added 10. Ayden Larsen led Bingham (11-13) with 10 points, all in the fourth quarter.

Monday, Feb. 26

6A Boys Quarterfinals at Huntsman Center, SLC

No. 4 Corner Canyon (17-7) vs. No. 5 American Fork (16-8), 9:30 a.m.

No. 1 Layton (23-1) vs. No. 9 Farmington (14-9), 11:10 a.m.

No. 2 Lehi (20-4) vs. No. 7 Riverton (17-7), 12:50 p.m.

No.3 Herriman (19-5) vs. No. 6 Davis (17-7), 2:30 p.m.

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