It appeared Sierra Vista’s boys basketball team was in trouble when starting point guard EJ Dacuma went down with a left ankle injury during the first quarter of the Class 4A state championship game.
But the Mountain Lions didn’t waver. They had plenty of firepower to fill the void with Dacuma on the bench.
Sierra Vista, the Southern Region champion, had four scorers in double figures, and the Mountain Lions defeated Northern champion Spanish Springs 79-65 to win their second straight 4A state title Saturday night at Cox Pavilion.
“I can’t describe it,” Sierra Vista coach Joe Bedowitz said. “What we’ve gone through this season, the ups and downs, all the time keeping it steady, we did what we need to do. Every game that started to look like it was going the other way, we did what we needed to do. It’s a great feeling.”
Senior guard Jevon Yapi led Sierra Vista (26-5) with 21 points, seven assists, six rebounds and seven steals. Dacuma came back to score 16 points, and Darius Ruffin added 15 points and 11 rebounds.
“It feels good,” Yapi said. “These are my guys, so it feels good to get one with them. We have a lot of chemistry together. We hang out outside of school and practice, so it feels like a real brotherhood.”
Sierra Vista won its second straight title despite losing 7-foot center and BYU commit Xavion Staton, who transferred from the program at the end of December to Utah Prep.
But Sierra Vista didn’t miss a beat. The Mountain Lions won the Desert League and Southern Region titles on their way to repeating as state champions.
“A lot of people thought once Xavion left we weren’t going to be able to still fight through the adversity or beat the teams that we beat,” Yapi said. “But we came out here and showed that we did. It’s good to prove that.”
Ruffin and Colton Knoll (12 points, four rebounds) both stepped up to fill the void Staton left by being physical and playing inside.
“This is a much different year. We were expected to do this,” Bedowitz said. “But along the way we kept hitting road bumps and road bumps. We got to the regional tournament and we’re like, ‘two more (wins),’ and then we got to the state tournament and we’re like, ‘two more (wins).’ It’s such a great season, and we’ve set the single-season win record at Sierra Vista. All in all, it’s everything that I wanted.”
Dacuma scored 10 early points to help give Sierra Vista an 18-8 lead before he went down with an ankle injury. Spanish Springs (24-5) clawed back and trailed 33-32 at halftime.
“EJ is our guy, but we still had to move forward,” Yapi said. “We just got to focus on finishing the game. We just told each other, ‘We had to get through this and we’ll be state champs.’”
Yapi helped Sierra Vista pull away in the third quarter. He scored six points during a 12-3 run, his fadeaway 3-pointer as time expired in the third put the Mountain Lions ahead 57-46, and they never let up.
“It’s what we’ve done all year, like one person goes down with an injury, someone else steps up,” Bedowitz said. “A person having a bad game, another person steps up. It’s just what we’ve done all year, and I wouldn’t expect any different.”
Travis Lee led Spanish Springs with 20 points. The Cougars made nine 3-pointers and cut the deficit late to 72-63, but Sierra Vista answered with six points in 40 seconds to end any chance of losing its lead.
Bedowitz praised Yapi’s ball-handling abilities, as the 6-foot-2-inch point guard helped Sierra Vista push the tempo with Dacuma not at 100 percent.
“I knew that if traps were happening, I knew we were going to be able to handle the ball,” Bedowitz said.
The coach also praised starters Ruffin and Noah Brosier for contributing more as the team learned to play without Staton.
“They’ve stepped up in ways that we needed,” Bedowitz said. “They’ve accepted their place on the team and what they have to do, and they do it very well.”
Contact Alex Wright at [email protected]. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
