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Trailing by seven at the half, the visiting Brighton Bengals decided to get a little physical Thursday night at Copper Hills.

And it worked — for a while.

But there's plenty of push-back in these Grizzlies and, in the end, Copper Hills retaliated for a big 56-54 girls basketball region win.

"We got punched in the third quarter, and that was what we talked about going into the fourth," Copper Hills coach Ben Morley said. "We don't play dirty, but we try to be aggressive and get after teams as much as we can. That's what I told my girls, 'We're getting pushed around.' "

Copper Hills (12-6, 6-1), with zero seniors on the squad, came into Thursday night's action tied with both Brighton and Alta atop tough Region 3.

And the Grizzlies were missing 6-foot-1 junior center Ashley Larsen, who had suffered a concussion in action earlier this week.

When Brighton (12-4, 5-2) came out strong in the second half, the Bengals had the home team wavering. With 3:51 remaining, a shot from McCall Christensen put the visitors up 46-43.

"Of course, with Brighton, that's one of their strengths. They've got a lot of size. We tried to mix up our defense to keep them off balance and keep them off the boards," Morley said. "It came down to just a few plays in the fourth quarter."

For Copper Hills, junior Mikelle Magalogo made a couple of crucial ones down the stretch. After Bailey Leiter connected to put the Grizzlies up 48-46 with 3:08 left, Magalogo drained a baseline jumper for a four-point margin.

Christensen answered with a put-back score on the other end, but Magalogo then connected on a long two to bring the lead back to four.

"Our main focus was to play the game our way, not to let them get in our head," Magalogo said. "Play our game and play our speed. We knew that they would go on a run, but we talked about that before the game — about handling the adversity when they did go on a run."

Shirsten Wissinger had 16 points for the Grizzlies, while Sisler added 14. Brighton had four players in double figures, led by Dani Barton's 16. But Barton, chasing a loose ball, hurt her left knee with 1:05 remaining and had to exit the game.

The Bengals still had a shot to tie or win when Sisler, after hitting one free throw, missed another with nine seconds left. But the last-second shot at the buzzer from Brighton's Brooke Ingles was off the mark, and Copper Hills secured the victory.

"Copper Hills played hard; they did all the right things," Brighton coach Jim Gresh said. "They played well."

Lindsey Johnson had 13 points for the Bengals. Alyssa Hirschi and McCall Christensen had 10 apiece. —

Copper Hills 56, Brighton 54

R Critical jumpers from Grizzlies junior Mikelle Magalogo extends the lead to four for the home squad twice in the final three minutes.

• A buzzer-beating heave from Brighton's Brooke Ingles goes awry, allowing Copper Hills to hold on.

• Copper Hills, Brighton and Alta all enter Thursday night's games with identical 5-1 records in Region 3. Copper Hills had also beaten the Bengals at Brighton earlier this season.