High school boys basketball: Early groove leads American Fork past Layton for 6A first-round win

OGDEN — Not everything went smoothly for American Fork on the opening day of the 6A state tournament — well, at least off the court it didn't.

American Fork's bus got a flat tire in Salt Lake City en route Weber State, and the delay waiting for a new bus kept it from arriving at the Dee Events Center until the fourth quarter of the previous game.

Once the Cavemen stepped on the court against Layton, all of those off-the-court issues vanished. They were in control from the opening tip, enjoying a 80-68 wire-to-wire victory in the nightcap of the 6A first round.

"We said OK, let's use it as a positive and laugh about it, joke and bond a little bit," said American Fork coach Ryan Cuff about his team's mentality during the delay.

Hayden Franson led the way with 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting while Isaac Johnson chipped in with 15 points.

"We have to execute better, but proud of them though. Layton's scrappy and we knew they would be, just glad that we could get the first one out of the way," said Cuff.

American Fork shot 53 percent from the field as it controlled the interior with a 52-38 edge in the paint.

With the win, American Fork advances to Wednesday's quarterfinal and will face Copper Hills at 2:30 p.m.

Layton did well to match American Fork offensively early on, trailing only 19-16 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, though, American Fork quickly opened things up. Franson scored eight of his 12 first-half points in the second quarter as the lead ballooned quickly to 41-26 by halftime.

"We were working on getting stops instead of trading baskets, and against better teams we know we have to do a better job that way," said Cuff about the second quarter defensive mentality.

The Cavemen pushed the lead to as many as 20 points early in the second half, and it never dipped below 10 the rest of the way.

Ethan Potter scored 20 points to lead Layton, which competed well, shooting 50 percent from the field. It gave up too many second-chance points to American Fork, however, and too many points off turnovers as well.

American Fork plays as fast as any team in 6A, and loves to push the pace after creating turnovers.

"We just knew we had to get up and down the floor, run the floor and get as easy points as we could early on and get our guys going and get into the floor and moving the ball," said Cuff.

Tanner Cuff added 14 points for American Fork to go along with his six rebounds and six assists.

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