Up six after the third quarter, the top-seed Trojans outpaced No. 5 Juab late for a 71-59 win in the 3A boys basketball state semifinals Tuesday evening at Utah Valley University’s UCCU Center.

Morgan’s headed for its first state championship appearance since 2019 and first under head coach Scott Hunt.

The Trojans (24-1) meet No. 3 Richfield or No. 7 Judge Memorial Catholic in the state championship game at 7 p.m. Wednesday back at Utah Valley University.

Bracken Saunders was Morgan’s go-to man with 30 points, six rebounds and three assists. The 6-foot-4 guard was perhaps the most irritating player on the floor for Juab (19-6), unable to thwart four consecutive scoring plays by Saunders in the fourth quarter.

That performance certainly came to the relief of Hunt, who “sparingly” involved his starting guard during Monday’s quarterfinal win over No. 9 Emery, which tipped off just before noon. After the first quarter, Hunt said he wasn’t confident pushing Saunders at full speed.

“I guess doctors work miracles,” Hunt said of his ill star. “We needed him and he got it done. Monday morning, we got on the bus to come down here and he didn’t even get on the bus with us. His parents had to bring him down late just before game time.”

Morgan asserted itself from the 3-point line in the first quarter, leaning on three deep shots by Kolton Asay, grabbing nine first-half points, and early scoring by Saunders for a 10-0 run.

Up nine through eight minutes, Morgan cooled offensively as the Wasps found solutions defensively. Madix Stowell watered down Morgan’s lead in the paint, supporting an 8-0 run and forcing a timeout by Hunt with under a minute to go in the half.

Closing the first half, Williams found Saunders for an easy bucket, curbing Juab’s run heading into the locker room but retaining only a 30-27 advantage through the second quarter.

Juab’s Austin Park signaled changing tides coming out of the break with a long 3-pointer tying the knot 30-all. Juab didn’t get every answer it wanted in a contested third quarter, but two more 3-pointers from Trent Baker kept Morgan on a six-point leash entering the final period.

The Wasps soon met their demise, fending off the Trojans’ full-court press and the late-game exit of Stowell, picking up his fifth foul down 10 with little over a minute remaining — which opened the floodgates.

With one to go, Hunt and the Trojans have one final box to check.

“Anytime you get to a championship game, it’s meaningful,” Hunt said. “This is a goal we had at the start of the season. We had three goals: One, Win a region championship; two, we wanted to be the No. 1 seed going into the tournament; and three, we wanted to win it.

“There’s no guarantees but we’re very fortunate to be here.”

BOX SCORE

Morgan 22 8 16 25 – 71

Juab 13 14 13 19 – 59

Connect with sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.