Matt Norman shoots Timpanogos past East, into school's first state semifinal

Everything impeding their path from hand to hoop from beyond the 3-point line at the Huntsman Center seemed to melt away for Timpanogos’ Matt Norman and East’s Taylor Zwick.

The opposing guards launched and buried trey after trey in an offensive showcase — Zwick accounted for six alone in the first half – but Norman’s surging second half was the difference as Timpanogos advanced to its first-ever state semifinals with a 76-57 victory in their Class 5A boys’ basketball state quarterfinal Wednesday.

Norman, who finished with 34 points and three rebounds, said East’s zone defense in the second half almost was daring him to shoot.

“No. 4 killed us in the first half, and in the second half we did a lot better staying with him and limiting his points,” Norman said referencing Zwick’s jersey number. “He was really the only one that could score. They don’t get points, we get points and we win.”

East jumped out to a 7-2 lead to start the game, but Timpanogos settled in with a hassling press defense and relentless energy to limit everyone but Zwick, who lit up the scoreboard with six 3-pointers on 8-of-8 shooting overall.

Timpanogos coach Izzy Ingle said at halftime he circled Zwick’s offensive shooting exhibition in the first half “37 times” to challenge his team.

“We knew he could shoot, but we were reminded of it really quickly,” Ingle said. “At halftime, we wanted [to make] an adjustment so he doesn’t touch it.”

Coming out of the break, Norman began locking down his shooting counterpart — Zwick missed his final six shots from the field to finish with 24 points — while burying a barrage of baskets on the offensive end.

It helped Timpanogos that East big man Mikey Frazier picked up three early fouls, taking away a massive scoring and rebounding threat in the post, Ingle said. Frazier finished with 15 points, but he was limited to only three rebounds.

Ingle said the historic final four run for his team – the first in the school’s 22 years – is “really big for us.”

Heading into a state semifinal with Corner Canyon, the coach will rely on his hot-shooting junior to continue finding the bottom of the net.

“Everybody in the state knows Matt Norman can really, really shoot,” Ingle said. “So it was good that he just solidified that tonight.”