OGDEN — Making their first state 4-A tournament appearance since 2008, the Royals were scrutinized for losing two of their last three games while also getting dusted by 37 points in their regular-season finale.
“Other people were more concerned than we were. We knew we were going to be good today,” said Roy High senior combo guard Jesse Wayment. “The press blew it out of proportion and made it a bigger deal than it needed to be.”
Outscoring Springville 18-5 in a decisive third quarter Tuesday, the Royals spurted past the Red Devils 59-46 in a first-round game at Weber State University.
Region 5 runner-up Roy (17-6 overall) advances to Thursday’s 4-A quarterfinals versus Region 6 champion Bountiful (20-3) at 12:40 p.m. in the Dee Events Center.
The Royals’ last quarterfinal-round appearance came in 2007, when Roy made the final four.
“I don’t care who we play,” Wayment said. “If we play our game, we can beat anybody. Now, we need to get our shots to fall. In the first quarter, I didn’t feel nervous but we missed a lot of shots.”
The Royals shot 39.5 percent (17 of 43) — 37.5 percent (3 of 8) on 3-point attempts — and got outrebounded 40-37.
Limiting Springville to a season-low point total on frosty 22.2 percent shooting (12 of 54), including 27.8 percent (5 of 18) from deep, brought a smile to Wayment’s face.
“It all starts with defense with us,” Wayment said. “We played like crap, losing two of three, because we didn’t play defense. We’ve had defensive games like this before (a 55-43 homecourt win over league champion Mountain Crest on Feb. 8). This was one of our better defensive games this season.
“We played a 2-3 matchup zone for three quarters, then went man-to-man in the fourth quarter,” he said. “They put five guys on the perimeter and we had to make an adjustment. We’ve made good adjustments all season.”
Junior center Brekkott Chapman scored a game-high 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting — he was a woeful 5 of 14 at the free-throw line — with 11 rebounds, two steals, seven blocks and two turnovers in 25 minutes.
Wayment was 4 of 12 from the floor for 14 points with three boards, one assist, two steals and a turnover. David Hadley had 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting with five rebounds, one assist, a steal and two turnovers for Roy, which had a 26-14 points in the paint advantage but missed 16 foul shots (22 of 38).
“We’re going to have to have free throws on Thursday,” Wayment said. “I don’t think we were all on the same page in our last three games. We really came together as a team today; everybody played well.”
Trailing 22-20 at halftime, the Royals seized control with a 14-zip run spanning the third and fourth quarter.
“I could feel the run was going to happen,” Wayment said. “Our defense got the run started. We got some steals and that got our transition game going. It was just a lot of guys making plays.”
Bradley Kitchen scored a team-high 14 points on abysmal 4-of-21 shooting for the Red Devils (17-5), who had an 18-8 second-chance points advantage but saw their four-game winning streak stopped.
Wayment attended Bonneville as a sophomore, but he moved when his mother remarried.
“I love the student body at Roy; they’re great,” he said.
Wayment played point guard as a junior, but sees the majority of his playing time this season at shooting guard.
“I like playing a ‘2’ where I can run the court without the ball,” he said. “(Assistant) Coach (Mike) Puzey tells me when my shot isn’t falling to take the ball to the basket.
“I was trying to take the ball to the cup in the second half,” Wayment said. “I was taking it to the hole.”
Wayment was 6 of 6 at the free-throw line during the second half.
• LOGAN 65, OREM 60: The Grizzlies got Region 5 off to a stunning start.
Logan High, which had to win four out of its last five games just to reach the tourney bracket, knocked out defending champion Orem 65-60 in opening round action Tuesday morning.
The Grizzlies jumped out to an early lead on Orem, the top seed overall in the tourney. Logan led most of the game as it shot 56 percent form the field, 59 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the foul line.
Tyler Brimhall led Logan with 23 points and eight rebounds.
Orem took the lead several times in the fourth quarter, but Logan answered each time. Down the stretch, it sealed the game from the free throw line.
Logan will face East, a 68-62 winner over Murray on Tuesday, in Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. quarterfinal.
• MOUNTAIN CREST 57, MAPLE MOUNTAIN 40: The Region 5 champion Mustangs dispatched Maple Mountain, winning every quarter.
Faimafili Laulu-Pututau scored 21 points, while Tyler Crosbie added 14 points, eight rebounds, five steals and five assists.
Josh Phelps paced Maple Mountain with 11 points.
• BOUNTIFUL 67, WESTLAKE 53: The Braves steamrolled through the first round behind 22 points from Utah State commit Sam Merrill.
Zach Seljaas added 15 as Bountiful used a dominating second quarter to put the game out of reach.
Zavon Jackson led Westlake with 19 points and Jake McCord and Brayden Holker added 10 points each.
Bountiful will play Roy in the state 4-A quarterfinals on Thursday at 12:40 p.m.
• OLYMPUS 50, WOODS CROSS 43: The Wildcats didn’t let any Titans reach double figures but five Olympus players with nine points each proved to be too much balance to stop.
In the late game, Sky View defeated Timpview 78-58 to advance to the next round.
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