Tooele guard Tanner Stuart buried a 12-foot jump shot with 6 seconds left in the game to give his team a 1-point lead over East on Wednesday night in Tooele. The Buffs pressed the visitors full-court on the ensuing possession and stole the ball with 3.3 seconds remaining. The Leopards then fouled Brock Haskell with 2.3 seconds remaining and the senior guard sank both foul shots for the final points of the game and a 59-56 victory.

“We knew we had to take a quick shot and Taylor Hunt gave me a great pick and fortunately the shot went in,” Stuart said about his game-winning basket.

“I knew Tanner Stuart could make the play and our players executed it the way it was drawn up during the time-out,” coach Ray Brazier said. “We wanted to spread the offense and use a ball-screen to get Tanner the shot. Stuart is such a great clutch player; he’s shown that the past two seasons.”

The game was tight throughout and neither team could manage more than a 7-point lead in the contest.

East trailed 55-53 and was able to force a jump ball underneath their own basket with 21.7 seconds remaining. The possession arrow went to East on the jump ball and the visitors were able to set up an out-of-bounds play underneath their own hoop. The ball ended up in the hands of East sharpshooter Christian Brown who connected on a trey from the right corner with 16.5 seconds remaining to give the Leopards the 1-point lead at 56-55.

After a time-out, Stuart made the drive to sink the game-winning basket and send the Tooele crowd into a frenzy.

Tooele center Jordan Clemente helped keep the game tight in the first quarter scoring 6 of his 8 points for the game and Tooele led 15-14 after one quarter.

The Buffs gained their largest lead of the contest when Matt Trussell grabbed an offensive rebound and put it in to make it 27-20 for Tooele with 3:45 left in the first half. But a three-point shot from the corner and an inside basket from East’s Jeff Vargas narrowed the gap to 28-25 for Tooele at intermission.

The teams battled evenly in the third quarter and East posted their largest lead of the game at 40-35 after a three-point basket by Brown. The Leopards’ lead was quickly erased thanks to a pair of three-point baskets by Jake Dalton to put the Buffs back on top 41-40 at the close of the third period.

The squads traded baskets for most of the final quarter until Jake Holt sank a pair of free throws to make it 55-51 Tooele with 1 minute left in the game.

East’s Andrew Williams drove down the middle of the key for a lay-up to slice the lead to 55-53 prior to the jump ball with 21.7 second remaining and the exciting finish to the non-region game.

Tooele improves it record to 3-1 and East drops to 1-3.

“I love the way our kids responded during practice on Monday and Tuesday; they were not phased by the loss to Bonneville,” Brazier said. “One of our main goals was to stop Vargas (East’s center) inside by having our wings and post sink deeper on defense. We’ll need to play strong defense inside in our league.

“Another focus of this game was to cut down on fouls. Bonneville went to the line 37 times last week; East went to the line only eight times tonight.”

Versatile inside-outside player Hunt was strong on the boards to lead the team with eight rebounds while also scoring 11 points with three three-point baskets. Trussell, Stuart, Dalton and Baird each had four rebounds.

Boone Baird dished out four assists while Stuart and Haskell each had three.

Stuart scored 11 points with Dalton and Clemente adding 8 apiece. Trussell scored 6, Baird 5, Haskell 4 and Holt 4. Dalton sank two treys and Baird knocked down one three-pointer.

The Buffaloes go for their fifth win of the season when they host Ogden on Friday at 7 p.m.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com