High school boys basketball: Lehi’s Cooper Lewis goes off for career-high 47 points in win over American Fork

Box score

In his 20-plus years of coaching high school and college basketball, Quincy Lewis has sat courtside and watched a lot of memorable performances.

Among the notables during his time at Lone Peak were T.J. Haws going off for 42 points in a 2014 playoff game, Nick Emery scoring 39 points in a 2011 preseason game and then Frank Jackson scoring a school-record 54 points in a Tarkanian Classic game in Las Vegas in 2014.

As memorable as those performances were, Friday night was even more special as his son Cooper Lewis scored a career-high 47 points in Lehi’s 71-61 victory over American Fork.

“It’s special when you see something like that. Yeah you have a guy like Nick Emery or T.J. (Haws) or all these guys and you get close to those guys and you feel like they’re your own son, but this is kind of cool ‘cause he is my own son,” said Lewis.

Cooper Lewis scored 17 points in the first half, 12 in the third quarter and then went off for 18 in the fourth quarter as the second-ranked Pioneers opened Region 3 play with a statement victory over American Fork.

Lewis finished 17 of 28 from the field, including six 3-pointers and made all seven of his free throws.

“He knows the magnitude of a game like this. Since he was that tall he’s been running around by me, so he knows what these games are about, but at the end of the day, and it really is true, it’s one game and we’ve got nine tough ones to go,” said coach Lewis.

American Fork never really changed up its defense, preferring to play Cooper Lewis straight up, which his dad said wasn’t necessarily surprising with the way Lehi’s supporting cast has played lately.

Earlier this week Davis elected to double team Lewis most of the night and held him to a season-low 10 points, but senior Bryson Bromley scored 22 points in a 54-39 win.

The week prior, Jordan held Lewis to 17 points, but Bromley again went off for 23 points in a 67-42 victory.

Bromley had been averaging just 3.3 ppg until those back-to-back 20-point nights.

“Fortunately Bryson Bromley … he had 20-point games back-to-back and that really helps them have to play straight up,” said Quincy Lewis.

Bromley didn’t score on Friday, and didn’t really need to with the way Lewis was shooting.

Asked several times to elaborate on his performance, Cooper Lewis was quick to deflect the praise to his teammates.

“I hadn’t shot too well the two games prior to this, so I don’t know, at some point, it’s bound to come out,” he said.

“I’m just thankful to have good teammates out there who were giving me the right opportunities and obviously providing for me and obviously we’re playing together on the defensive end which is always fun to do that.”

Lehi jumped out quick on Friday, building a 14-8 lead after the first quarter, but led by Tiger Cuff, American Fork settled into a groove in the second quarter and built a 28-26 halftime lead.

Cuff scored a team-high 19 points, and in the third quarter back-to-back 3-pointers by him and Jared Shepherd and then a tip in by Blake Rawson keyed an 8-0 run that gave a American Fork a 41-33 lead with 4:15 left in the quarter.

Lehi responded with an 11-1 run to close the quarter and never trailed the rest of the game as Lewis made 6 of 8 shots in the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Coach Lewis thought his team defended well during that key closing stretch of the third quarter, which led to some easy transition baskets. He also credited big man Grayson Brousseau with some timely baskets, as Brousseau scored six of his nine points in the second half.

“He had one 3 in the first half, was in foul trouble, but then he came in the second half and he got six points, but they were big ones,” said Quincy Lewis.

“Even though Cooper’s making shots, you gotta have that balance, you’ve got to have somebody else you can go to.”

Lehi improved to 12-2 overall with the victory, while American Fork fell to 7-7 overall.