No. 4 Beaver overcame a late push from No. 5 South Sevier to secure the 44-37 quarterfinal win.
South Sevier got the opening bucket, but it was the last time the Braves would lead throughout the game as Beaver jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the first quarter.
The Beaver offense was jumpstarted by Talia Alisa who had eight first quarter points and had 14 on the night.
“I thought we had better control of the ball even though at times we struggled,” said Beaver head coach Jonathan Marshall.
“We didn’t shoot the ball great, but I thought we did a good job of attacking the basket. We did a great job of getting the ball into Talia Alisa. She had a huge game for us and that was one of our focuses tonight.”
The Beavers’ defense continued to thrive and held the Braves to nine points in the second quarter and went into halftime up 22-17.
“Last time we played South Sevier we gave up 59 points to them and we felt like our defense wasn’t anywhere where it needed to be. Tonight, I thought the defensive effort was much better,” said Marshall.
“Even though they were able to come back and get pretty close, the fact that we were able to get up on them on by eight points was big. It allowed us to control the tempo of the game.”
The fourth quarter South Sevier made a run and brought the game within two points. However, big free throws and a 3-pointer from Danzee Bradshaw kept the game away from the Braves.
“If we want to win tomorrow, we have to do the same thing because North Summit is a great team,” said Marshall.
“The teams that are left in the tournament are great and if we want to win, we have to win like we did tonight. Its going to be a dog fight.”
Beaver will face No. 1 North Summit Friday at SUU in the 2A semifinals.
Top-seeded North Summit dominated No. 8 Intermountain Christian and the Braves never trailed as they cruised to a 68-44 win in the 2A quarterfinals.
The defense got going early for North Summit, holding the Lions to only eight points in the opening quarter for a 13-8 lead.
Despite some foul trouble, North Summit extended its lead to 31-19 at halftime and Intermountain Christian never recovered.
“In Game 1 of a tournament there’s always some jitters and we had a few mishaps but overall, we just kept playing hard,” said North Summit head coach Jerre Holmes.
“Our girls kept playing hard, got into some foul trouble and we didn’t let that get in our way. I’m just proud of us for stepping up. We were supposed to win that game and sometimes that’s hard to do.”
North Summit kept piling on the points in the third quarter, outscoring Intermountain Christian 26-11 for a 57-30 lead heading into the fourth.
The lead allowed Holmes to rest his starters for the entire fourth quarter, which he said is needed in the state tournament.
“That’s what everyone is trying to do,” said Holmes. “We were fortunate to grab that top seed and that gave us the chance to rest some players.
“We expected to win and now our job as coaches and as a team is to watch (Beaver vs South Sevier) and see what we can do best. You have to have some luck to win a tournament so we’re going to try everything we can to get some luck and hope we get more along the way.”
Hartlynn Richins was the Braves’ leading scorer with 22 points, including two 3-pointers. Richins also pulled in six rebounds and dished out four assists in the win.
Last season, Kanab marched its way through the 2A tournament bracket and earned its first girls basketball state championship since 1992.
This year Kanab entered the tournament as the second seed in its quest for a second consecutive 2A title. The Cowboys were in good Thursday form as they easily handled No. 10 Enterprise 46-23 in the 2A quarterfinals.
“We just needed a game. The girls are tired of practicing, and we needed a good game,” said Kanab head coach Kent Glover.
“It was good for some of our younger girls to get some tournament time today. We’ve not had a real tough game since Beaver so we’re happy to get our game legs back under us.”
Enterprise never was able to get its offense going against the Kanab defense. The Wolves were held to six points each in the first and second quarters as the Cowboys opened up a 29-12 halftime lead.
Things didn’t get much better for Enterprise in the second half and the Wolves were held to just 23 points on the night, a season low.
Kanab was held to only four points in the third quarter but Enterprise was unable to score enough to capitalize and the Cowboys never trailed in the game.
Rylee Little led the scoring for the Cowboys with 15 points and also pitched in nine rebounds and four blocks. Kanab’s Anna Cutler also contributed 13 points with two 3-pointers.
“I liked our effort,” said Glover. “I thought we weren’t too wide eyed. I thought they handled the atmosphere well. I thought they executed offense and played hard on defense.
“We’ve got some things to still improve on, but we’ve got some really smart girls and some great leadership with our seniors.”
No. 3 Draper American Prep Academy held off a late push from No. 6 Duchesne to take the 67-62 win Thursday in the girls 2A quarterfinals at SUU.
The two stayed even throughout the first quarter, but it was in the second when Draper APA started to separate itself from Duchesne. Draper APA put up 25 points in the second quarter to take a 42-39 halftime lead.
Draper APA continued to push its lead in the third quarter but this time it came at the hands of its defense which kept Duchesne at 10 points in the quarter.
The fourth quarter is when things started to crack as Duchesne opened with a 10-0 run to get the game within 60-57.
“Duchesne prepared for us better than we prepped for them,” said Draper APA head coach Dan Baldwin.
“In the second quarter the teams were kind of feeling each other out and one found the holes. Out of the break (Duchesne) made adjustments, and we started forcing things and not playing in our system. I think Duchesne’s effort and adjustments is what made that game so close.”
The Draper APA offense struggled to close the game and only scored one field goal in the fourth quarter. The more Draper APA came up empty handed on offense the more frustrated it started to play.
“They had all the momentum going into the fourth and we had nothing but frustration,” said Baldwin.
“We had frustration with each other, frustrated with our individual performances and we started forcing it. We tried too hard to be individually great instead of great together.”
Despite the Duchesne run, Draper APA played smart defense with timely fouls and defensive stands to keep its lead.
Duchesne tied the game in the fourth quarter but that’s as close as it got to taking the lead.
Baldwin said a close win over South Sevier on Feb. 2 gave his team much-needed experience to pull out the quarterfinal win.
“A couple weeks ago we had a game with South Sevier and that win taught us how to approach (close games) in a different way,” he said.
“Usually, we’re a space and pace team and we play fast and we didn’t score our average that game so that game was key to teach us how to win this one.”
Aaliyah Baldwin led Draper APA with 23 points (including two 3-pointers), eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.
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