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HIGHLAND — If Lone Peak guard Steven Ashworth wanted to leave an impression during his final home rivalry game against American Fork, he didn’t get off to the best start.
Neither did his team.
Ashworth was scoreless from the field, and the Knights trailed the Cavemen by four points after eight minutes with more missed shots than any other stat on the court.
But the 6-foot-1 veteran mustered a rally.
Ashworth finished with a game-high 26 points, and Lone Peak used a 35-11 run bridging the second and third quarters to pull away from rival American Fork 71-58 Tuesday night at Lone Peak.
“We tried to pressure their guards and get ourselves going,” said Ashworth, who went 13 of 13 from the free-throw line. “We’re a fast playing team, and when we start to play fast, that’s when we play our best basketball.”
Max Brenchley scored 10 points and Chantry Ross supplied 11 for the Cavemen, including a jumper that capped a 13-3 run to start the second half with the host Knights on top 45-24.
“At the beginning of the game, people have a lot of emotions; the AF and Lone Peak rivalry is an emotional rivalry,” said Lone Peak coach Dave Evans, whose team won its sixth-straight game. “I always know that anything can happen in the first quarter — and then it kind of settles down.”
Isaac Johnson scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half to lead American Fork (9-7, 0-1 Region 4), and Trey Stewart — who averages 12 points per game — finished with five points and three assists for the Cavemen.
American Fork took a 13-9 lead out of the first quarter, holding the Knights to just four made field goals in the opening eight minutes for the early margin.
But Ashworth opened the second quarter with a pair of free throws — his first points of the game — and Lone Peak used a 4-0 spurt to tie the game at 13-13 just over a minute into the quarter.
Stewart responded with a bucket off his own steal to put the Cavemen up 15-13 on the next possession. But it would be the final basket of the game for the junior.
“We had nice shots, even in the first quarter. They just didn’t fall,” Evans said. “That’s not typical of us. We had open looks, but just didn’t hit them.”
Lone Peak outscored its rival 22-8 in the second quarter, led by Ashworth’s seven points and three assists, en route to a 32-21 halftime lead.
Jackson Brinkerhoff opened the half with a 3-point play just a minute after halftime, and the Knights opened on a 13-3 run to take a dominant 45-25 advantage on Ross’ jumper with 5:12 remaining in the third quarter.
“Brinkerhoff might not be the biggest big. But he’s physical,” Ashworth said of the 6-foot-7 center. “The same with Brenchley; they’re willing to take on the challenge. Friday night, they’ll have another one.”
Ashworth, who helped put the game away with nine points in the fourth quarter, left to a thunderous applause in a packed home gym midway through the final period. Even when the American Fork student section chanted “flopper” during one of his drawn charges, the senior just shrugged and laughed.
“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “The fans are out, our students are packed, and fans are just trying to support. When they start trying to go at you, you just have to prove them wrong.”
Lone Peak plays at Pleasant Grove on Friday in a battle of the top teams in Region 4, while American Fork hosts Bingham at 7 p.m.
