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Cottonwood Heights • Almost all of Copper Hills' shots were off early in a Region 3 showdown against Class 5A defending champions Brighton on Thursday night.

But when senior Shirsten Wissinger got hot in the second half, the game changed.

Wissinger hit a baseline 3-pointer three minutes into the final quarter as the visiting Grizzlies took the lead for good en route to a 54-45 victory.

"I feel like everybody just had little jitterbugs or something at the beginning of the game," said Wissinger, whose shots look like it's being released above the left side of her body. "In the end, we just decided to slow it down, pull it out and we did much better in the second half."

Copper Hills (15-0, 6-0) had a shaky start against the Bengals, scoring five points in the first quarter. When Sidney Kaufman hit the first basket of the second quarter for Brighton (10-6, 5-2), the Grizz trailed 17-5.

But it was seniors Wissinger and Mikelle Magologo — who finished with 15 and 19 points, respectively — that started the visitors on the comeback trail.

"After the first quarter, we just said we were going to take it one possession at a time," Copper Hills coach Ben Morley said. "We kind of mapped it out for them. We said 'We're going to be here at halftime, we're going to be even by the end of the third quarter.'"

Wissinger's 3 with 5:05 left gave the Grizzlies a 47-44 lead. Twenty seconds later, Magalogo's basket gave Copper Hills its biggest lead of the game at 49-44.

Dani Barton, who led Brighton with 15 points and eight rebounds, made a free throw for the Bengals with 4:10 left. That was the last point of the night for Brighton.

When Magalogo swiped her third steal of the game, with 30 seconds left, she fed Wissinger for a layup.

"We don't put in all that time in the summer just to be an average team," Wissinger said. "I feel like all the team bonding in all the tournaments definitely has helped."

Brighton coach Jim Gresh lost major components from the '15 championship squad.

"We're starting to come around," Gresh said. "I thought tonight we jelled as well as we've jelled all year."