Wild finish gives Lehi boys basketball dramatic win over Herriman in 6A semifinals
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- Lehi players celebrate with senior Grayson Brousseau (right) after he scored the last basket during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi senior Grayson Brousseau drives to the basket during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi senior Cooper Lewis goes up for a shot during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi players celebrate a big 3-pointer during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi senior Bryson Bromley shoots a 3-pointer during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi senior Grayson Brousseau shoots a layup during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi junior Easton Hawkins goes up for a shot during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi players celebrate after the exciting 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi senior Cooper Lewis shoots a 3-pointer during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi players and coaches watch the final minutes of action during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi junior Easton Hawkins shoots a shot during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi senior Cooper Lewis goes up for a shot during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
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- Lehi head coach Quincy Lewis directs his team during the 6A semifinal game against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.
It’s one of those moments that every high school basketball player dreams of.
Down by one point … 10 seconds left … a chance to go to the state championship on the line.
That’s where the No. 2-seeded Lehi boys basketball team found itself in Wednesday’s 6A semifinal thriller against Herriman at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
Thanks to some intense defense, the Pioneers had the ball under their own basket with a chance to snatch the dramatic victory — but to do that, someone would have to make a big play.
Lehi senior Bryson Bromley took the ball out of bounds and lofted it to senior Cooper Lewis beyond the 3-point arc. It’s where everyone in the building expected the ball to go since Lewis had been brilliant, using his tough-to-defend high-release jump shot to score a game-high 27 points.
Would this be the capstone on a masterful showing for Lewis?
Lewis dribbled to his right around a screen — but instead of attempting to shoot an NBA-range 3-pointer over a Mustang double team, he passed the ball to the screener, senior Gabe Cowan, who had rolled to the foul line.
For a moment, Cowan was open and it had to be tempting to take the 12-foot jumper. He had only scored four points but both had come on short jumpers in the lane.
Would this be Cowan’s iconic finish?
He sized up the Herriman defender quickly coming out on him — and passed the ball to the corner to senior Grayson Brousseau.
Brousseau hadn’t taken a 3-pointer in that game but can knock down shots from long range. He could’ve elevated right then to get the shot off, but a Mustang defender was closing out fast — and that meant there was an opening.
“I remember thinking, ‘go make the layup for your teammates,'” Brousseau said.
Brousseau gave a slight head fake to his left, then drove past the defender and went straight to the basket.
A second Mustang came over and attempted to wall up at the rim, wanting to make the shot difficult without risking fouling Brousseau.
The Pioneer senior hung in the air, double-clutched, then softly put the ball off the backboard with his right hand.
Everyone on both teams held their breath as it hung on the front of the rim for an endless moment, then nestled into the basket to give Lehi the lead and spark an ecstatic Pioneer celebration.
Check out the video of the big sequence by clicking here.
“Something kicked in and I just went and made the layup,” Brousseau said. “It was a tough finish. I got some contact but I had to put it in.”
Lehi’s showcase of excellent unselfish, fundamental basketball in a pressure-packed moment proved to be the difference as the Pioneers secured the wild 63-62 win over Herriman to advance to the 6A championship.
“I just trusted my teammates,” Brousseau said. “I knew Coop (Lewis) was going to make the right play like he has done all year. We got the ball to Gabe Cowan and he made the right play like he always does. It was just awesome to be able to do that with my teammates.”
Lehi head coach Quincy Lewis (Cooper Lewis’s dad) said that his Pioneer team knew someone other than the leading scorer might have to make the play at the end.
“He (Cooper Lewis) made the right decisions down the stretch,” Quincy Lewis said. “When two guys guarded him, he made a pass, then we made the extra pass and got the play we wanted down the stretch.”
The Pioneer coach said he could see that Brousseau wasn’t going to settle when he got the ball from Cowan.
“The look in his eye when he caught it said he wasn’t taking a jumper,” Quincy Lewis said. “He was going to the rim and put it in.”
While Brousseau will get the lion’s share of the attention for making the game-winning shot, the reality is Lehi had to make a dramatic comeback in the final minute and to do that required a full team effort.
The Pioneer hopes of emerging victorious appeared dim when the Mustangs took a seven-point lead on a big 3-pointer with a minute-and-a-half left in the game.
But Bromley came up with a big trey of his own from the corner for Lehi with 1:03 on the clock to cut the deficit to four.
On the ensuing Herriman possession, Cooper Lewis and junior Easton Hawkins executed a textbook double-team trap near midcourt and knocked the ball free.
The Pioneers got the ball and eventually found their star a corner 3-point look which didn’t come close to going in because he was fouled. Cooper Lewis calmly drained all three free throws to make it a one-point game with 28 seconds to go.
At that point Lehi chose to go for the steal instead of the immediate foul, although there was some risk to doing so since precious seconds could tick off the clock.
“We said they’ve got to make two or three passes to get across halfcourt,” Quincy Lewis said. “If they can do that, then we’ll take a foul. But we weren’t going to bail them out and send them straight to the line.”
The Pioneers knocked one pass out of bounds, then Cowan nearly drew a charge as the Mustangs tried to dribble away from pressure.
Instead the ball came loose and both teams scrambled for it. Lehi ended up securing possession and called timeout to set up the dramatic final play for the Pioneers.
“I wasn’t in the game, so I got to watch it and it was so incredible,” Brousseau said. “I could not be more proud of the guys that were in right there. It was a complete team effort and just so perfect.”
Even after Brousseau’s clutch basket, there was still the matter of 2.2 second remaining on the clock.
Herriman tried to launch a long pass but it sailed to Cowan, who just tossed the ball high in the air to allow the time to expire.
“Hats off to Herriman,” Quincy Lewis said. “Mustang head coach Doug Meacham did a dang good job coaching them. It’s tough over there right now and it could’ve just as easily been that way for us.”
In addition to Cooper Lewis’s 27 points, Brousseau scored 12 and Hawkins had 11 points and five rebounds.
Herriman was paced by 17 points from forward Malcom Johnson, who was tough to stop inside.
With the win, Lehi (22-4) moved on to the 6A title game where it will face No. 4-seed Corner Canyon. The Chargers overwhelmed top-seeded Layton in the other semifinal, setting up the finals matchup.
The 6A championship will take place at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday at 7 p.m.
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