Tooele outscored Grantsville 17-2 in the final 5:52 of the game to pull away for a 57-40 victory before a packed house Friday in Grantsville in the first game of the season for both teams.

The Buffs never trailed in the game, but back-to-back three-point shots by Grantsville’s Reggie Roberts and Jacob Clonts sliced Tooele’s lead to 40-38 with 5:52 remaining in the game and Tooele coach Ray Brazier called a time-out.

“I told the kids we wanted nothing but lay-ups the rest of the game. We went into a motion offense, made sure we had our spacing and Tanner Stuart made some great passes inside to Matt Trussell,” Brazier said.

Stuart was the go-to guy for Tooele most of the night and ended up with a game-high 24 points. But in the final four minutes he became the assist-guy while Trussell scored five of his seven points in those four minutes with easy inside buckets.

The Buffs went on a 7-0 run in a one-minute span toward the end of the game when Brock Haskell drove the baseline for a bucket followed by two baskets and a foul shot from Trussell. That pushed the lead to 49-40 with three minutes remaining.

After a made Grantsville foul shot, Stuart scored a lay-up and the Cowboys were forced to foul. Tooele sank six-of-six foul shots in the final 1:30 to secure the victory.

Nearly two minutes elapsed without any scoring to start the game, but then Tooele hit three consecutive treys within 40 seconds to give them a 9-0 lead early in the game.

“I wasn’t expecting that (9-0 lead),” Brazier said. “We knew that Grantsville would be tough so I wanted the players to be poised to start the game and it worked out for us.”

Boone Baird started the game with two three-pointers followed by a trey from Stuart to build the 9-0 lead. Grantsville’s Alex Childs responded with a pair of three-pointers of his own and Tooele led 11-6 with 2:28 left in the first quarter. The Buffs then went cold on their three-point attempts, but still led 13-8 after one quarter.

The Cowboys hung with the Buffs in the second quarter and sliced the lead to 16-14 when Cody Colson drove the baseline for a lay-up. Tooele then outscored Grantsville 15-5 to close the second half capped by a three-pointer from Stuart with three seconds remaining to give Tooele a 31-19 lead at intermission.

“Stuart is a great player and he shot really well tonight. We had a hand in his face and he still hit the shots,” said first-year Grantsville coach Shane Heath.

Meanwhile, Grantsville had a poor night shooting hitting 13 of 44 for the game for 30 percent. “We shot awful. The effort was there for most of the night and we hustled. We had some lapses with rebounding, but I’m happy because the kids kept battling back and they worked hard,” Heath said. “Toward the end of the game we got away from playing our game and working together as a team. I told our players that basketball is a game of runs and we need to make our runs better than our opponents’.”

Grantsville was able to trim four points off Tooele’s lead in the third quarter with six points from Reggie Roberts and two from Colson to make it 38-30 after three quarters. With a pair of foul shots from Childs and the two three-pointers Grantsville clawed back to within two points; then came the 17-2 Tooele run to close the game.

“Jake Dalton really helped us control the tempo from his guard position while Baird and Trussell rebounded well for us tonight. We also got a lot of help from our great student section,” Brazier said. “For a rivalry game I thought both teams played with a lot of respect for each other. I have a lot of respect for coach Heath and his kids played really well attacking us all night.”

The Grantsville gymnasium was filled and fans were raucous for the opener which contributed to a fun atmosphere. “It would be great to have this type of crowd every night we played,” Heath said.

Scorers for Tooele included Stuart with 24, Baird 12, Trussell 7, Jake Holt 4, Taylor Hunt 4, Dalton 2 and Haskell 2. Scoring for Grantsville included Reggie Roberts 14, Childs 10, Colson 8, Jacob Clonts 3, Jacob Roberts 3 and Austin Cunliffe 2.

Stuart sank three three-pointers and Baird had two for Tooele. Childs hit two treys for Grantsville with Reggie Roberts, Clonts and Jacob Roberts each hitting one trey. Childs had 10 rebounds and Colson six for the Cowboys while Stuart grabbed 11 boards, Baird 8 and Trussell 8 for Tooele

Grantsville was playing without the services of post player Austin Gumucio who injured his foot during football season and is still two weeks away from returning to the court.

Tooele hosts Kearns on Tuesday and Grantsville travels to Rowland Hall on Wednesday.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com