American Fork holds off Copper Hills to reach Elite 8 title game

American Fork • The Utah Elite 8 Tournament has been hosted by American Fork High since the tournament’s inception in 2014. But for the first time in its history, the hometown Cavemen will play in the title game after they edged tournament rival Copper Hills 54-53 in the semifinals Friday night.

“That locker room is going nuts,” American Fork senior Rob Crowther said. “We’re super excited that we’re going to be going to the final in our own school and in our own tournament.”

It was Crowther who led the team in scoring with 13 points after the senior guard was called into action late in the game. He hit 5 of 6 free throws in the closing minutes to thwart the Grizzlies’ comeback.

“Those free throws were a lot of pressure, but I’ve been practicing those all my life,” he said. “I’ve been in that position before many times. My teammates are counting on me in that situation, and we all trust each other to get the job done.”

After trailing 9-5 at the end of the first quarter, the Cavemen found some rhythm on offense in the second quarter when junior forward Isaac Johnson began to work around the Copper Hills defense. Johnson joined backcourt partner Zachary McWhorter, a pair of 6-foot-8 players, to give American Fork a clear size advantage.

“That’ll be us the whole year,” Cavemen coach Doug Mecham said. “We’re always going to be looking to take advantage of that, but I don’t think we got to do that as much as we wanted tonight. Sometimes you have to adjust to how the game is being called, and [Copper Hills] was very physical. We could have done better attacking the paint from different spots and moving the ball a little better at times.”

When the inside wasn’t showing as much promise, Johnson decided to try from outside. He hit two of his team’s five 3-pointers in the quarter to take a 26-23 lead into the half. The Cavemen looked like the would run away from the Grizzlies in the third quarter, but Copper Hills big man Trevon Allfrey single-handedly kept his team in the game by scoring 10 of his 22 points in the third to keep the game close at 38-34 heading into the fourth.

American Fork used an 8-0 run to open the final period to gain a little separation, and the Cavemen held on to reach the title game.

“We have a really young team and not many of us have played varsity basketball before,” Johnson said. “We just need to know that we have to be solid with our passes and our shots late in the game. That stuff will eventually come to us.”

And while it certainly wasn’t lost on the team that it finally upended the team that had knocked it out the previous two seasons, Johnson would prefer to treat the win as business as usual.

“We’re going to be prepared for whoever we’re matched up against,” he said. “We’re ready no matter what.”