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Ogden • In a game filled with some of Utah's best-known high school athletes, somehow it was appropriate that a player who hadn't scored all game would give Brighton a thrilling 64-62 victory over Davis on Friday and a shot at the Class 5A state basketball title.
Chances are, anyone who watches prep sports knew about the Bengals' Osa Masina and Simi Fehoko, two of Utah's best football players. Brighton's Brock Miller is among the state's best basketball players.
And what can you say about Davis' Jesse Wade, the pure-shooting Gonzaga-bound Dart star who finished with 35 points and whose last-second desperation 3 almost went in?
But, in this game, it was two free throws by Derek Devashrayee that would give Brighton a chance to win its first boys' title since 1996 when it plays Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
He was fouled with 4.5 seconds to play and calmly put in both shots, points that finally staved off Davis' furious fourth-quarter rally.
"Those are the free throws you practice for in the gym your whole life," Devashrayee said. "I had to step up and make them. I had to put them in for my team."
The game, however, was far from over, especially with Wade on the floor. The Davis star got the ball and let a potential game-winner fly from about 30 feet out as the buzzer went off. No one in the loud Dee Events Center would have been surprised to see it go in.
But the ball bounced off the rim, leaving Brighton to celebrate and Wade to lie face down in the floor in agony.
"It looked good," said Darts coach Chad Sims. "Jesse has made those before."
The fact that Davis was in a position to win it at all was amazing given that Brighton dominated this one much of the way. The Darts trailed by double digits much of the second half as Miller, Masina, Fehoko and John Gremillion dominated much of the game.
But Wade would score 12 points in the final 4:18 of the game, eventually giving Davis its first lead with 1:28 to play.
Brighton's Fehoko rattled in a 3-pointer to put Brighton up 62-60, only to have Wade tie it with 25.6 to play. That set up Devashrayee's unlikely heroics.
Bengals coach Jeff Gardner — whose team lost two of its past three Region 3 games and came into the tournament tied with Copper Hills and Alta for second place three games behind Bingham — called Wade one of the all-time greats.
"You try to make him make 2s and try to contain him," said the son of legendary Utah prep coach Joel Gardner. "He goes 12 for 22, but every one he makes feels like a 5-pointer. He makes shots you don't see high school kids make."
Gardner credited Miller, who finished with 17 points along with Gremillion, as a key to the win.
"They had two guys on him," he said. "That leaves us with some wide-open plays, and, to Brock's credit, he makes the pass."
So the Bengals, who figured to make a run at the football title last fall, now find themselves playing great basketball with a chance to win a state title.
"Football helps us prepare for situations like this," said Fehoko, who finished with 12 while his grid teammate Masina had 16. "You are tired, but you get up and go."
Twitter: @Tribtomwharton —
Brighton 64, Davis 62
R Brighton's Derek Devashrayee hits two free throws with 4.5 seconds left and Davis star Jesse Wade barely misses a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send Bengals into state title game.
• Wade, who has committed to Gonzaga, ends his prep career on a high note with 35 points, four assists and three rebounds.
• Brighton gets double-figure games from John Gremillion, Brock Miller, Osa Masina and Simi Fehoko.