Ogden » Mountain Crest, over the past few seasons, has gone through the same ritual, with the same results.

Run through the regular season, often with a great record, make it to the state playoffs, advance to a semifinal, get bounced by a state power like Provo or Timpview.

It's been sort of like a bizarre rite of passage for the Mustangs. But it's one they reversed on Friday night against Provo in the Class 4A semifinals at Weber State.

The 57-50 win over Kyle Collinsworth and the Bulldogs will go down as a defining win for the Mountain Crest program. It's something the entire team will remember, taking out the best player in the state and a Provo team that's been on top for so long.

"This is great for the team and for the kids," Mustangs coach Jim Crosbie said. "The last four years we've always run into that wall. This year, at the beginning of the season, the goal was to break through. I don't want the kids to think that the job is done. There's still one more game to go."

That game will take place this afternoon against Timpview. Not that Mountain Crest wasn't equally impressive.

The Mustangs couldn't stop Collinsworth, who ended his stellar career with 30 points, 14 rebounds and five assists, but they stopped everyone else and prevented Collinsworth from receiving any tangible help.

Meanwhile, Matt Stewart continued his dominant state tournament run, scoring a team-high 20 points and grabbing six rebounds. And unlike Collinsworth, he had a lot of help. Tyler Weese scored 10 of his 18 points in the decisive third quarter when Mountain Crest took hold of the game and refused to let go.

"I just wanted to come out and be aggressive," Weese said. "It was easy out there for me tonight. Things were really spread out, there were lanes to the basket and the opportunities were there."

With Cal Hanks, the 6-foot-11 Southern Utah University signee, clogging the lane, there was more resistance to Collinsworth than there was for the BYU signee in the quarterfinals against Springville. And with Alex Kuresa running the point, there was experience and a certain calm that you can only get from an elite athlete.

"Alex is a future BYU quarterback," Crosbie said of the junior. "It doesn't matter what's happening, he's always going to be a leader out there."

Provo, with a Keith Moore three-pointer, closed within 49-47 with two minutes remaining, but the Mustangs closed the game on an 8-3 run.

tjones@sltrib.com