3A State Boys: Tyler Bennett's buzzer-beater lifts Dixie past Bear River


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WEST VALLEY CITY — With 2.9 seconds left in the game, Dixie’s Tyler Bennett hit an improbable buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Flyers a 43-41 win over Bear River in a wild finish.

“Tyler is a winner and we knew we had to have the ball in his hands,” Dixie head coach Ryan Cuff said.

Although a remarkable comeback for the Flyers, Dixie gave up a 4-point lead with 14.1 seconds left in the game as Bear River’s Cole Fronk hit a 3-pointer to cut Dixie’s need to one. Following a Dixie made free throw, Bear River’s Riley Walker made a contested layup and free throw to give the Bears the lead.

Dixie was forced to go the length of the floor in 2.9 seconds, where a hot-handed Bennett found the bottom of the net after a perfectly executed inbounds pass from RJ Wilgar to Richard Guymon, who quickly dished it off to Bennett. Bennett scored 12 of Dixie’s 14 fourth quarter points, finishing with 17 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

“We just wanted to execute what coach drew up and hopefully we got a shot,” Bennett said. “And we did so it worked out well.”

“We run that play quite often in practice,” Cuff said. “We know it works that way and we had confidence in that. We had a couple of different things we thought we could do, but they didn’t put a guy on the ball. It was a great pass by RJ; it’s got to work perfectly. And of course a lot of confidence from Tyler Bennett to pull up and hit that shot. It probably works 5 to 10 percent of the time when we work on it in practice.”

Cuff said he was happy his team can “live to play another game,” and said it was all due to the credit of his players on the court who didn’t give up after losing a lead.

“You can’t quit. You have mixed feelings because you have a lead and we did a couple of things defensively that they hit some big shots that put them back in a position to beat us,” he said. “You never quit, you keep executing to the end. I’m proud of those guys — the guys that believed in themselves at the end of the game.

Dixie will play Desert Hills on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Maverik Center in West Valley City.

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