SALT LAKE CITY — East High sharpshooter Taylor Zwick was on fire in the first half, daring Timpanogos to stop him in a Class 5A state quarterfinal at the University of Utah.

He was almost challenging the Timberwolves to stop him, with 22 points on a perfect 8-of-8 shooting that included six 3-pointers before halftime.

Matt Norman was up to the challenge.

Norman scored a game-high 34 points with eight 3-pointers, and helped hold Zwick scoreless from the field in the second half to lead Timpanogos into its first state semifinal in school history with a 76-59 win over East in the Huntsman Center.

“It’s great to get after it with other kids, and dog around on defense,” Norman said. “They were just sitting in a zone, and Derik Eaquinto was great at getting me the ball to make my shots.

“I liked the challenge.”

Tyler Walker had 17 points, five assists, four rebounds and two blocks for Timpanogos (20-6), which advances to face Corner Canyon in Friday’s semifinals for the first time in the school’s 22-year history.

“The work and the time we put into this game in the offseason is crazy, and it’s all just to get here,” Norman said. “It feels great to get this win.”

Zwick scored 22 of his 24 points in the first half to lead the Leopards (13-13), and Boise State commit Mikey Frazier added 15 points, three rebounds and two blocks for East.

“We tried to stay between him and the basket,” Timpanogos coach Izzy Ingle said of Frazier. “We didn’t double down on him, like a lot of teams do. He’s so tall that he can see over that and make easy passes out.

“We went one-on-one with him … and he got in foul trouble in the first half. I’d like to give our guys credit as much as I could, but he picked up three fouls, and that changed the way that he could play.”

Frazier scored the first four points of the game for East, including a 3-pointer from the left elbow in the opening minute for a 4-0 start.

But Timpanogos never trailed by more than five points, and pulled within one, 22-21 on Eaquinto’s buzzer-beating three at the end of the first quarter after both teams traded treys in the final four possessions.

Timpanogos took its first lead of the game, 31-29, on Tyler Walker’s drive to the rim with 4:51 remaining in the half. The Timberwolves used a 13-2 run to pull ahead 36-29 on back-to-back buckets by Norman with 2:39 left.

“He got on fire in the first,” Ingle said. “We knew he could shoot, but we were reminded of it quickly.

“At halftime, we adjusted so that he didn’t touch it. I wrote shooter on the board, and I circled it probably 37 times because that’s how many points I felt like he had in the first half.”

Zwick pulled the Leopards within four in the final minute of the half. But Norman’s shot off the glass just two seconds before the halftime buzzer gave the Timberwolves a 39-34 advantage at the break.

“He killed us in the first half,” Norman said of Zwick. “In the second half, we did a better job of staying with him. He was really the only one who could score for a while, so we just couldn’t let him get points.”

The Leopards shot 68 percent from the field in the first half, but Timpanogos scored 14 points on 11 turnovers to take the two-possession lead into the second half.

East cut the deficit to one point just 67 seconds after the break. But Timpanogos responded with a 9-0 run to put the lead back to 47-38 on Norman’s 3-pointer with 5:28 on the third-quarter clock and cruised to a 61-49 lead after three quarters.

“We see that every single day in practice, but everybody in the state knows that Matt Norman can really shoot,” Ingle said. “He solidified that tonight.”

Corner Canyon 79, Box Elder 54

At the University of Utah, Hayden Welling registered 19 points and Luke Warnock added 14 as the Chargers (15-10) overwhelmed the Bees.

Gabe Toombs added 10 points, four rebounds and four assists for Corner Canyon, which will face Timpanogos in a 5A semifinal Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Max Watson scored a game-high 25 points to lead Box Elder.

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