MURRAY -- The best senior talent among the Class 5A and 4A girls basketball players staged an all-star game that was, well, your typical all-star game. There was plenty of scoring, a little bit of defense, some fancy passing, and almost as many fouls as a normal church-league game.
When the final buzzer sounded the 5A All-Stars went home with bragging rights for the summer with their 73-66 victory at Murray High Friday.Mountain View's Erin Thorn put on a performance fitting of Utah's Ms. Basketball as she was the star among stars. The future BYU guard tossed in a game-high 22 points, including three 3-pointers.
"It was a fun game, being able to mix it up with players from other teams," said Thorn, who also had a couple of blocked shots. "There was some defense, but in an all-star game you don't really concentrate on defense too much because players want to get their points."
Thorn opened the scoring with a 3-pointer, and then combined with teammate Heather Cheesman on an 8-2 run that gave Team 5A an 11-4 advantage. The 4A All-Stars never held a lead in the game and trailed by as many as 16 points but kept coming back to make things interesting.
After Olympus' Mata Tukuafu hit a jumper to bring Team 4A to within 21-19, Thorn scored five points in an 8-0 run to boost the 5A lead back to 10.
Trailing 35-28 at halftime, Team 4A closed the gap to 37-35 after two free throws by Bountiful's Hailey MacKay, who led her team with 18 points. That would be as close as it would get as Alta's Lindsay Logan hit a 3-pointer late in the quarter to give her team a 50-42 edge with eight minutes to play.
Thorn then teamed with Hunter's Kristy Slade to break the game open. Slade scored six points, while Thorn had a 3-pointer and an assist while building a 59-46 lead. A 3-pointer by Lindsey Hille of Olympus cut the gap to 61-51 with 4:16 to play. But Thorn, Logan and Orem's Kristen Saliby combined for an 11-5 run for a 72-56 lead and a victory all but wrapped up.
"This was a chance to get to coach the best players in the state and not worry about the pressure of winning or having to scout," said Mountain View coach Dave Houle, who coached the 5A team along with Orem coach Scott Houle. "Girls basketball is getting better and better, and tonight was a sign of it. I was just here being a cheerleader today."
Cheesman scored 12 points, Slade 11 and Logan 9 for Team 5A. Hille scored all of her 14 points in the second half, while Bonneville teammates Kristen McDougal and Andra Boyce each scored 10.