Draper APA 60, North Sevier 50
When No. 4 Draper APA and No. 5 North Sevier met earlier this year, Draper APA had their way.
The Eagles sophomore sensations Samantha Kartchner and Aaliyah Baldwin scored 22 and 20 points, respectively, Draper APA had a 16-point halftime lead, and cruised to 24-point win.
Thursday night, it was a completely different story.
North Sevier hung tough for most of the night before eventually running out of gas, losing 54-46.
“This is something that Draper APA has never been able to get over the hump with,” said Draper APA assistant coach Lindsey Bluth. “This was our opening goal, to get to the semi-final game.”
What was similar during Thursday’s quarterfinal was the brilliant play from Baldwin, who had by far the best night of anyone in the tournament. She led her team with 40 points, and when she wasn’t putting the ball through the basket or putting the ball in perfect position for her teammates to score, she was coming up with clutch steals and defensive stops.
“She’s the key to our team. We go how she goes. We have a gameplan, but with her, it’s go until they stop you,” said Bluth.
It was a classic back-and-forth first half between the Eagles and Wolves, with Draper APA jumping out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but never extending past that until late in the fourth quarter.
North Sevier never saw a lead in the first half but stayed close by winning the 50-50 balls and outrebounded Draper APA 27-12. Because of that advantage, the Wolves also scored 11 second chance points while the Eagles had none.
What North Sevier didn’t have was a plan to stop Baldwin. The sophomore guard entered Thursday’s game averaging a team high 23.17 points per game and 7.13 assists per game, and almost surpassed those marks in the first half alone.
Draper APA used an 8-2 run to start the third quarter and never looked back. They used stout defense to control the game, only allowing North Sevier to shoot 29% from the field. Another major key was keeping North Sevier stars Trey Torgerson and Brooklyn Butler in check and not allowing anyone else to beat them.
“We’ve had a third quarter lull a few times this year, and so that was something that we talked about in the locker room, not letting that happen tonight,” Bluth said.
Even with North Sevier drilling a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter and cutting the deficit to six, the Eagles never lost sight of the end goal. They had an answer for every North Sevier bucket and made key defensive stops down the stretch.
With the victory, the Eagles avenge last year’s loss in the quarterfinals and set up a match with top-seeded Beaver Friday night at Salt Lake Community College.
“We really stacked our non-region play this year, so for us, Beaver is just like the rest of the non-region teams that we have played the rest of the year,” said Bluth.
“We feel prepared. It’s no different than the other teams we’ve played.”
Kanab 58, Parowan 56
It took some late-game stops and scores, but No. 3 Kanab survived a late scare from No. 6 Parowan to advance to the semifinals of the 2A state tournament with a 58-56 win.
With no seniors on the roster, sophomore Taylor Janes came up big, intercepting a pass with ten seconds left and made one of two free-throws to help the Cowboys hold off the Rams.
Playing for the fourth time this season, Kanab’s first half looked very similar to the second time the two region foes met. Freshman Rylee Little was everything but her last name for the Cowboys, scoring 14 points and pulling down eight rebounds in the first half.
“Our first half I was really impressed with. They did some things at halftime and we had a hard time adjusting to them,” said Kanab coach Klint Glover. “Give them credit for it and give us credit for wining because that’s how it ended up.”
Despite not scoring again until the fourth quarter, Little made key plays down the stretch to help preserve the win, finishing with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
“She’s dominant. It’s just a matter of whether we can get the ball up the floor and get it to her,” said Glover. “They changed what they were doing in the second half and that makes it a little bit harder, but she’s a force.”
Trailing by 12 at the break, Parowan had to change things up in order to get back into the game. The changes came most noticeably on the defensive side of the ball, where the Rams brought a full court pressure and started fronting the inside post to deny the ball going inside.
The result was Parowan slowly climbing back into the game, eventually pulling to within six at the end of the third quarter, and staying within single digits the rest of the way. After only forcing four Cowboys turnovers at the half, the Rams flipped the switch, forcing 15 in the second half and not allowing Kanab’s offense to get into a rhythm.
“They’ve got some seniors that wanted to finish strong, and they did. It was a pretty impressive effort by them,” Glover said. “We’re young and that showed a little bit but we came through in the end and ending up wining, so we are happy about that.”
“Survive and advance, that’s what it is.”
When the Cowboys felt the momentum starting to slip away, they turned to junior Anna Cutler who delivered time and time again. Whether it was breaking the Rams press, forcing turnovers on the defensive side of the ball, or making clutch free-throws down the stretch, Cutler did it all.
Late in the game and with the score all knotted up, it was Cutler who drew the foul on a 3-point attempt, making two of three to give the Cowboys the lead for good. Cutler finished the night with a team high 22 points.
“Anna’s where our team begins and ends. She absolutely has to shoulder a lot of the ball handling and had to all year. She just does a great job,” Glover said.
With the win, Kanab will now face North Summit Friday night at Salt Lake Community College.
North Summit 61, Millard 36
Coming into the game, North Summit was looking for it’s third win this season over region foe Millard. Trying to get that third win, however, was a huge point of emphasis for the Braves and not glossed over or spoken lightly about.
“Typically when you beat a team twice, you just say, ‘We’re just going to do what we are going to do’,” said North Summit coach Jerre Holmes. “We changed it up, not because we needed to, but just to send the message to our girls that we need to make improvements to beat them.”
The improvements worked and the end result was exactly what Holmes wanted as the No. 2 North Summit Braves used a strong second half to take down No. 10 Millard Thursday night 61-36.
A trio of Braves played key roles for North Summit, led by junior Presley Peterson, who scored 11 of her 16 points in the second half and pulled down eight rebounds. Fellow junior Chezlie Langston also had eight rebounds in addition to her 15 points, while sophomore Hayzlyn Richins recorded a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds.
“We didn’t care who scored, we just wanted to win. We were just focused on the scoreboard only,” said Holmes. “That might be the thing I am most proud of tonight.”
Holmes was also extremely proud of the play of sophomore Hartlynn Richins, and rightfully so. Each time a big play was made, it seemed Richins was right in the thick of it, scoring six points, dishing out eight assists, and pulling down eight rebounds.
“When Hartlynn got three fouls, that’s trouble for us,” said Richins. “She was able to play the rest of the game, still play hard, and not foul.”
With each of the first two games being decided by 10 points or less, the first half certainly made it feel like the two squads were headed for another tight contest. Each struggled to find a rhythm in the first half, and went into the locker room shooting under 30% from the field.
“We didn’t run an offensive set the first half. We were showing them all these sets but because of what Millard was doing, it just put us in strike mode,” Holmes said. “We settled down a bit more in the second half and actually played some play sets. I think that was the difference. That was huge for us to slow down and run a play.”
Once the Braves did settle down and run those sets, they were almost unstoppable, tallying more points in the third quarter (25) than they had in the entire first half (22).
The Braves final tally by the end of the game was an outstanding 62% in the second half, while also outscoring the Eagles 30-12 in the paint, thanks in large part to Langston’s big play.
“She’s obviously a big key to what we do. With her in the game, it allows us to push out further on the perimeter because she can protect the paint for us,” said Holmes. She is a big defender for us down low and gets us a lot of buckets. She also made some outstanding passes tonight to both Hayzlyn and Presley.”
That type of team effort will be exactly what Holmes will be looking for on Friday night as the Braves will battle Kanab in the semifinals at Salt Lake Community College. Having already played once this season, Holmes knows what lies ahead for his team.
“Now the shoe is on the other foot, because we played them and they beat us pretty bad,” Holmes said. “We know we can play with them. It’s going to be a battle.”
Beaver 50, Duchesne 37
Being the top seed in the state tournament, you can almost guarantee that you are going to get everyone’s best when you play them. You certainly don’t have to remind Beaver head coach Jonathan Marshall about that.
“The previous two years we were the higher seed and got beat in this game,” said Marshall. “To finally be able to get a win and go to the semi-finals, I’m glad about that.”
It wasn’t always pretty, but the chance to advance doesn’t count style points, and Beaver made just enough plays down the stretch to pull away from No. 9 Duchesne Thursday night 50-37.
Junior Talia Alisa helped lead the way with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Gentry Brown and freshman Danzee Bradshaw also played big roles, each scoring 12 points.
Defense was a main key for the Beavers, especially after finding themselves trailing by one after the first quarter. The top ranked team in 2A only allowed the Eagles to score four points in the second, and took seven point lead into the locker room.
“I thought our defense, overall, played really well,” Marshall said. “A few times we fouled them and bailed them out but I thought our defense played tough.”
Despite the deficit, Duchesne never looked uncomfortable in its role trying to play spoiler. The Eagles never allowed the Beaver lead to get too out of hand, and had the top seeded team on their heels when they closed the gap to two with just over four minutes left in the third.
Watching the lead disappear, the Beavers maintained composure. With 36 fouls called between the two teams, free-throws also became a major aspect of the game, and Beaver rose to the challenge, drilling 12/14 in the second half to keep their lead.
“The refs were calling it tight and I thought that we did a good job of making our free-throws when we got fouled,” said Marshall I think we shot a little bit better from the line than Duchesne and that was key.”
Much like they have all season, Beaver used a team first approach to win its 21st game of the season. The Beavers pride themselves on the fact that on any given night, any member of the team can go off.
With 27 years of coaching under his belt, that mentality has become a staple of the Beaver program. And while Marshall wouldn’t mind having a top scorer in the state, he won’t complain about what he has.
“Not one time in 27 years have we had the leading scorer in the state on our team. We value sharing the ball and we ask our kids to do that. I’m really proud that our kids buy in,” Marshall said.
“We’re the number one team in the RPI, but you go and look at the scoring leaders and we don’t have anybody in the top five or six.”
The team first mentality is a big reason why Beaver is considered a favorite to take home the state title. They will continue their quest at doing just that Friday night, where they will face Draper APA.