High school boys basketball: Cedar finds its groove as it marches into 4A title game with semifinal win over Ridgeline

Box Score

This time of year, coaches usually know the identity of their team. For Cedar coach Mark Esplin, however, even though it’s March there’s still a lot he’s learning about his team.

Over the course of the season Esplin said seven of his team’s top eight players had COVID-19 at some point, and those eight players have only played together in eight of 23 games.

One of those eight games was Tuesday night’s 4A semifinal against Ridgeline, and the confidence was unmistakable as Cedar repeatedly took Ridgeline’s best shot before securing the 66-61 victory to book its spot in Wednesday’s championship game at 2:30 p.m.

“This time of year it’s awesome. You’ve got to have confidence to go play in this tournament; you’ve got to have confidence to walk out in the biggest stage. These guys have played this way for a long time,” said Esplin.

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As different players have taken on different roles this season, one constant has been confidence, which Cedar City will take to the court with the championship game against region foe Desert Hills. The teams split the season series.

“We’ve played some really close games. They’re a really good team, we know who they are, they know who we are. There’s no surprises,” said Esplin.

Both Cedar City and Ridgeline had four players score in double figures in a very balanced game that was tight most of the game.

The Reds created a bit of separation early in the fourth quarter, which proved to be the difference.

With the game tied 46-46 after the third, Cedar opened the quarter on an 11-0 run as Treyton Tebbs, Ty Harrison and Jorgan Santana Reyes all buried 3-pointers during the stretch.

Suddenly trailing 57-46 with 5:52 left in the game, Ridgeline started clawing its way back into the game. A pair of 3-pointers from Spencer Adams trimmed the lead to 61-58, and then after a layup by Cedar’s Dallin Grant — who led all scorers with 16 points — Ridgeline’s Will Booth made a 3-pointer of his own it a two-point game.

Ridgeline’s defense got a quick defensive stop to regain possession, but it missed a contested layup with 25 seconds left. After Cedar went 1 of 2 from the free-throw line, Ridgeline again had a possession to try and tie the game but it didn’t get a shot off as Cedar stole the ball.

“In the end we took care of things we needed to,” said Esplin.