OREM — Top-ranked North Summit took care of business as expected in the opening round of the 2A girls state basketball tournament Friday morning at Orem High, but it was tough for the Braves to get too excited.

Midway through the fourth quarter of North Summit’s 55-38 victory over Millard, leading scorer Hunter Vernon landed awkwardly on an opponent’s foot and fell immediately to the floor, clutching her right knee.

Seeing Vernon grab a knee unfortunately wasn’t an uncommon sight for some of her teammates. She tore her ACL during the 2015 volleyball season, causing her to miss all of last year’s basketball season.

She came back strong for her volleyball team this year and in basketball she’s been the catalyst to North Summit’s 21 wins, leading the team in scoring with a 10.5 per-game average.

Her status for the last three rounds of the playoffs at the Sevier Valley Center next week is unknown, which created a somber tone in North Summit’s locker room after the game.

“She’s huge for us. But we’ve got to move on. We’re not teaching lessons if we give up now,” said North Summit coach Jerre Holmes.

Friday, Vernon led North Summit in scoring with 13 points before exiting the game, with Kennady McQueen adding 12 points.

Even though the Braves ended up winning comfortably, it wasn’t without some adversity.

Despite leading by 12 early in the second quarter, North Summit slipped into an offensive rut and Millard took advantage, whittling the deficit to 25-22 by halftime.

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The momentum spilled into the third quarter for the upset-minded Eagles as Kynlee Penney drained a 3-pointer to give Millard a 27-25 lead, its first lead since 2-0.

North Summit answered with an 8-0 run and methodically pulled away.

“They hit it, and here we came and got it back and never looked back. I was most proud of them for not letting the pressure of ‘we’re supposed to win’ get to them,” said Holmes.

North Summit returns to action next Thursday at the Sevier Valley Center when it faces North Sevier in the quarterfinals at 4:10 p.m.

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