Provo • It wasn’t that long ago American Fork was looking for a spark.
Only tabbed as the 10th best team in Class 6A entering the state tournament — and with a losing record at that — the Cavemen may not have had the most exuberant attitude as the boys basketball team started getting ready for the tourney.
But the Cavemen started to win in the postseason and momentum started to build.
“Our practices got a lot better, for sure,” said American Fork senior Yaw Reneer.
After Saturday night, the Cavemen might be up for another practice just for fun.
American Fork (16-12) knocked off Corner Canyon 43-39 at the Marriott Center to claim the 6A championship trophy and provide an unlikely end to a season that saw plenty of ups and downs.
“If we could have seen through a looking glass and see that this was the end, we could go through it a lot easier,” said Cavemen coach Ryan Cuff, whose team was 11-12 entering the playoffs. “That’s what I told our guys when we were making our run. I said, ‘Hey, if they told us that we’d be at this moment at this time, would you do it again?’
“And, of course, you would,” he added.
In what became an increasingly physical, defensive battle in the championship, Corner Canyon took a 37-36 lead on a three-pointer by Tyler Burraston with 3:10 remaining.
American Fork was thwarted, time and again, in its attempts to drive into the lane for buckets as the Chargers registered nine blocks in the game. But in the end, the Cavemen themselves relied on defense and knocking down clutch free throws for the win.
Corner Canyon’s Max Toombs grabbed an offensive rebound and scored for a 39-37 Chargers’ lead at the 3:10 mark.
But Reneer got to the line after a fight for an offensive rebound at the Corner Canyon end and canned two charity shots for a 40-39 lead with 1:38 left. Then Evan Young made another free throw with 41 seconds to go for a two-point lead.
The Chargers’ last real chance — and it was a good chance at that — went begging, a missed layup in the last 10 seconds. American Fork’s Noah Moeaki sealed the win with two more free throws.
“We just took away that zero and believed we were the one seed,” Cuff said. “Our goal in this game was to keep them under 50. To keep them under 50, huge.”
The two teams had played earlier in the season with the Chargers claiming a 59-55 win at American Fork. And Corner Canyon (19-7) seemed poised to take control early by scoring the game’s first seven points. But American Fork 3-pointers by Reneer, Moeaki and Ashton Wallace gave the Cavemen a 9-7 lead entering the second quarter.
Reneer and Young co-led the victors with ten points each while Wallace and Moeaki added seven each. The Chargers were paced by Burraston’s 12 points while Coombs added 11.
Young many times served as a hustling spearhead for American Fork, attempting to take charges — doing so on one particularly important occasion in the last three minutes — and even being bounced around by the bigger Corner Canyon players in the paint.
“Evan has so much energy and is the heart of this team. His defense is contagious and what he was able to do for us the last three years is just unbelievable,” Cuff said.
“I love each and every one of the players on this team,” Young said. “It’s so awesome. I mean, we’re just family, we really are. We’re just brothers.”
