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OGDEN — Tanner Cuff played two regulation high school basketball games Friday evening at Weber State.
By the end of American Fork’s triple-overtime thriller with Davis, the senior son of head coach Ryan Cuff was the only starter available on the floor due to foul trouble.
But was the only starter the Cavemen needed.
Cuff had 25 points, five rebounds, eight assists and four steals — and he scored 17 of American Fork’s 19 points in three overtimes — to help the Cavemen edge Davis, 82-80, in a Class 6A semifinal classic at the Dee Events Center.
“All four of our other starters fouled out, and I was like, ‘Oh my heck,’” said Tanner Cuff, who played an eye-popping 41 minutes. “But other guys stepped up and I am just so proud of all the bench players that stepped up. McKay, Josh, Benson; I love them all.”
Isaac Johnson had 28 points, 11 rebounds and three steals for the Cavemen, who forced 19 turnovers and out-paced the Darts 36-24 in the paint. Utah Valley signee Trey Stewart added 13 points and four steals, and McKay Smith had 13 points in 32 minutes off the bench for American Fork (23-3), which advanced to face Region 4 rival Pleasant Grove in Saturday’s championship.
Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. in Ogden.
But when it came down to crunch time — overtime, and a second, and a third — all those normally stout starters could do was watch, cheer and hope for the best.
“The kids came and fought, both teams,” said American Fork coach Ryan Cuff, who moved his family to the community to take the Cavemen job last summer. “I told their coach at the end of the game, you hate to see anybody lose that game. You almost to keep it going on.
“I just felt at the beginning of overtime, even though we had guys on the floor who didn’t play very much, that they know the system and they’ve been waiting all year to play these guys. The confidence that they came in and had is very rewarding to me as a coach.”
Before the Cavemen could get to that title game, they had to get through Davis (18-8), which used a 17-7 run through the third quarter to take a 48-39 lead into the final period of regulations.
After Sam Arrington and Jake Sampson hit back-to-back threes to lift Davis to a double-digit advantage, Johnson went to work. The 6-foot-11 Oregon signee scored 13 of American Fork’s first 17 points in the fourth to rally the Cavemen, including a thunderous dunk as American Fork began to hold Davis without a field goal for the final three minutes.
“We knew we had to go to him, just get the ball inside and try to pound it and pound it,” coach Cuff said. “Get to the foul line, get the read, and just keep going at it while we still had time on the clock.”
But the Darts (18-8) wouldn't be held down for long, and Trevan Leonhardt — who had just four points in the first half — nailed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of regulation to force overtime, 63-63.
Leonhardt finished with 17 points, five assists and four rebounds for the Darts, who also got 15 points from Brendan Redford.
TANNER CUFF FTW ‼@afhsevents survives Davis, 82-80 in 3OT to advance to tomorrow's @UHSAAinfo 6A championship. pic.twitter.com/jIhpM51X8k
— KSL.com Sports (@KSLcomSports) March 2, 2019
Tyson Garff led Davis with 20 points, five rebounds and three steals, and Sampson added 16 points and four steals, including four 3-pointers to keep his team alive and in the back-and-forth game.
Tanner Cuff had a chance to win the game after the first overtime, down one with 0.01 seconds on the clock. But the senior made just 1-of-2 free throws to force another four-minute period.
The guy was exhausted; who can blame him?
“I was so glad I got to redeem myself,” he said. “I would’ve hated myself if I missed that free throw and didn’t get the chance to redeem myself and get the win.”
Tanner more than made up for it, scoring all seven points in the third overtime, including a baseline layup with 1.2 seconds remaining while fighting through a triple-team defense to lift the Cavemen to a win in the program’s first semifinal since 2014.
“I was trying to get a catch-out high and then get a screen,” Cuff said. “But he took away the screen, so I went to the baseline.
“I was just so happy. But I thought, 'we’ve got to get a stop now. There were a few more seconds on the clock, still.'”
American Fork 82, Davis 80 (3OT)
AFHS: Cuff 25, Stewart 13, Franson 3, Johnson 28, Smith 13.
DHS: Sampson 16, Leonhardt 17, Redford 15, Graf 20, Fisher 4, Arrington 8.
