The way that Grantsville started out their game against Cyprus, it appeared that the Cowboys were going to blow the visiting Pirates right off the court Wednesday night.

Grantsville jumped out to a 17-2 lead just minutes into the second quarter and looked to be firing on all cylinders. To their credit though, Cyprus fought back and made it a game at the end. It was Grantsville at the end that was able to hold on for a 41-38 victory for their first win of the young season.

“Our spacing on offense really helped us in the first quarter,” said Grantsville basketball coach Shane Heath. “That was something we really worked on after the Stansbury game.”

Caleb Nesbitt had a solid game for the Cowboys with 15 points and eight rebounds while Ben Tripp worked hard down low to contribute 12 points of his own. Austin Cunliffe only scored two points on the night but was busy cleaning up the glass in leading Grantsville with nine rebounds. In fact, Grantsville out-rebounded the much taller Cyprus team 27-23 in the game.

“(Ben) Tripp brings a lot of emotion for sure out there and helped on offense and rebounding,” Heath said. “I think Caleb (Nesbitt) and Ben (Tripp) shot a combined 12-of-16 from the floor.”

Coach Heath couldn’t have dreamed of a much better start in the opening quarter. His offense scored the first eight points of the game and led 15-2 after the first quarter buzzer sounded.

Tripp led all scorers with six points in the period while Nesbitt followed with five. As impressive as the offense looked in the first, the defense matched the offensive intensity as the Cowboys repeatedly forced the Pirates into tough outside shots.

The Grantsville offense was still clicking in the second quarter, only Cyprus was finding easier buckets on offense. Trevor Stratton found a number of seams in the Grantsville defense to score six points and help cut the Grantsville lead down to 27-19 at halftime.

The third quarter was a near disaster for the Cowboys. Grantsville only scored four total points in the period but their stingy defense kept them in possession of the lead. Marquis Newman went to work down low for the Pirates to score four points and leave them trailing by four points heading into the fourth quarter.

After two free throws from Newman, for the first time all night the Pirates were not trailing in the game with the score tied 33-33 with 4:50 left in the game.

With the score tied, Grantsville was helped by two clutch baskets from Damon Deavila and Tripp. Deavila gathered an offensive rebound and nailed a layup and Tripp followed with a strong post move to give the Cowboys a 37-33 lead.

From there it was a battle of free throws between Cyprus and Grantsville. With a 39-36 lead, Josh Harrison nailed both of his free throws to ice the game with 10.9 seconds left. Cyprus was able to get a slam dunk by Marcus Bryce but while the Pirates on the bench were celebrating the dunk, Nesbitt took the inbound pass and ran out the clock for the win.

“This was a good win because everyone played as a team out there,” Heath said.

Grantsville will next travel to Tooele on Friday at 7 p.m. to face off against the Buffaloes.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com