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Layton High's Karter Miller (1) pushes the ball up court past Farmington's Luke Beattie (23) in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Layton High's Jack Godderidge (21) battles for the ball with Farmington's Brycen Rudolph in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Layton High's Isaac Thompson (15) looks to score against Farmington's Jack Layton (42) in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Layton High's Jack Godderidge (21) gets past Farmington's Malakai Tobler (3) for a shot in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Layton High's Jack Godderidge throws a pass against Farmington in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Layton High's Karter Miller (1) shoots against Farmington's Isaac Anderson (22) in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Layton High boys basketball coach Kelby Miller directs his team in a Region 1 game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Farmington High's Sawyer Bingham (11) sizes up Layton's Karter Miller (1) in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Layton High's Chase Randall, left, defends Farmington's Isaac Anderson (22) in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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Farmington's Chase Hamblin throws a pass against Layton in a Region 1 boys basketball game Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Farmington.

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FARMINGTON — For Layton High junior guard Karter Miller, the game came down to trust and simply treating the winning play like any other.

Miller drove the lane and made a layup with 2.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and Layton escaped with a thrilling, 58-57 Region 1 victory over Farmington on Friday night.

“It’s definitely not new to me; don’t fold under pressure. Every shot is the same shot. There’s no pressure on one shot more than any other shot,” Miller said. “Just play your game. Trust yourself and your teammates.”

Coming out of a Farmington timeout with 7.9 seconds left, Layton set up the winning play that didn’t quite go the way it was designed in the huddle.

“The play wasn’t really for me; it was for me to get downhill and then kick it out to Chase (Randall) who was on the inbounds pass. I felt like the defender was overplaying me, so I swung back and finished the layup because I was wide open,” Miller said. “Even if it was someone else on the team, we would have trusted them doing the same thing I did.”

Miller scored 21 points for Layton on Friday, with seven field goals and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line.

Layton (16-6, 6-1 Region 1) employed that trust factor in hands of senior guard Nic Anderson earlier in the fourth quarter to get in position for Miller’s winning layup.

Down 50-42 at the 5:38 mark, Anderson started a 16-7 run the rest of the way with a 3-pointer to get the Lancers out of a huge hole late in the game.

“Coach trusts us to hit open shots. That’s how I roll; that’s what I’m supposed to do,” Anderson said. “We practice these situations time and time again. That exact situation, I guarantee we’ve done at least five times … a million times in practice; it’s nothing new.”

The Phoenix (11-10, 2-4) weren’t easy prey, however, and still led 55-50 midway through the final frame, even after Anderson’s second trey during the Layton streak. Randall’s driving layup closed the gap to 55-52 thirty seconds later.

“We talked … we just have to get one shot and one stop, and we’re back in this game, only down three with three minutes left,” Miller said. “We’re rolling after that. It’s like a normal game; there’s no reason to speed up. Three minutes is a lot of basketball to play.”

Senior guard Jack Godderidge got the Lancers close at 55-54 on a fancy turn-around jump shot before Farmington’s junior guard Malakai Tobler again made the margin three (57-54) with 1:19 left.

Miller knocked down a floater from the line with 58 seconds on the clock and defense dominated down to his winner at the end.

“That’s all we’ve been working on. We know our offense will come, so we trust our defense. All of our rotations need to be on point, especially if we’re down,” Miller said.

Randall netted 14 points for Layton, including a trio of 3-pointers, and Anderson had nine points, all on baskets from beyond the arc.

There were some surprisingly big lead changes earlier in the game, where Layton led 13-2 in the first quarter before giving it all away to trail 23-21 in the second stanza.

Although Layton was up 26-25 at the break, Farmington came out on fire in the third quarter, and a 3 by senior guard Isaac Anderson gave the Phoenix a 38-28 edge with 5:44 remaining in the third.

Tuning up for their fourth-period comeback, Layton didn’t panic even though things looked tenuous.

“Our shots weren’t falling. We couldn’t buy a stop on defense, but we trusted we could come back from a 10-point deficit with 16 minutes left,” Miller said.

Nic Anderson agreed, and Layton now turns its attention to Davis on Tuesday with the region championship on the line.

“Basketball is a game of runs; we went on a run, then they came back and more. We just had to stay in it; we’ll be fine,” Nic Anderson said. “We take every game seriously. We have to bring it every night. We trust each other … we do whatever to get the job done.”