When you begin the state tournament as the No. 7 seed after finishing second in your region, not a lot of people expect you to reach the finals.

But that’s just what happened to the Woods Cross Wildcats and their boys basketball team. 

Woods Cross entered the tournament having finished 7-3 in Region 5, a game behind Bonneville. The 14-8 Wildcats then reeled off four straight wins in the Class 5A playoffs to reach the championship on March 5 at Brigham Young University. Their reward: a date with 25-1 Olympus, the champions of Region 6 and a perennial state power. 

But Woods Cross gave the Titans all they could handle. 

After blowing out their previous four state tournament opponents by at least 17 points each, Olympus struggled with the upstart Wildcats. Woods Cross played suffocating defense to hold the potent Titans to just 16 points in the first half. Meanwhile, Woods Cross scored 21 points of its own to hold a five-point advantage at the break. 

Olympus outscored Woods Cross 11-6 in the third quarter, making the score tied at 27-27 entering the final six minutes. However, the Wildcats struggled mightily from the field in the second half and scored just four points in the fourth quarter. Olympus completed the comeback and won 40-31. 

For the game, Woods Cross held Olympus to 33% shooting from the field. But the Wildcats were just 12-32 from the field and only attempted five free throws. The Wildcats made just three shots from three-point range, all by Jaxon Smith. The 6-foot-1-inch junior was the only Wildcat to reach double figures in scoring, as he tallied 11 points. Zach Delange had seven points and five rebounds. Alex Brey had a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with his four points. 

Woods Cross defeated Murray 59-47 on March 2 in the semifinals, held at the University of Utah. Perhaps the most impressive performance at the tournament came Feb. 28 in the quarterfinals when Woods Cross routed second-seeded Orem 75-54. In that contest, Woods Cross outscored Orem 42-24 in the second half and shot an impressive 26-41 from the field. The defense held Orem to just 19 of 54 from the field. Mason Bendinger had one of the best games of his stellar season. The junior had 34 points, six rebounds and three steals. Smith had 19 points and four rebounds, while Nic Hogan had 10 points and four rebounds. 

There is a lot of excitement surrounding the program. Some key players come back next season to follow up on this run to the finals. Aside from Bendinger and Smith coming back for their senior years next season, Brey, who averaged five rebounds a game, will come back. The team has some other underclassmen, such as John Bennion, Cade Eberhardt, and Hunter Jackson who figure to have larger roles. λ