The 4A girls basketball state semifinals were held at Utah State’s Smith Spectrum on Friday.
Top seed Ridgeline was the first team to book its place in the finals with a dominant win over Green Canyon. Then, Sky View won a thriller against Snow Canyon.
Sky View 60, Snow Canyon 57
Every player dreams of making a buzzer beater in the state tournament, and Sky View’s Hannah Radford actually got to live it on Friday night.
The Sky View senior drained a 3-pointer as the final horn sounded as the Bobcats rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit to beat Snow Canyon 60-57 for the 4A semifinal win at Utah State.
Radford, who scored 36 points the night before in the quarterfinals, was mobbed by teammates in a dream atmosphere after extending her high school career one more game.
“It’s unreal. That’s a shot that you always dream about and dream of taking, and I’m glad it went in. Kourtney (Payne) set a big-time pick, and so the shot was there and I just took it,” said Radford, who scored 18 points in Friday’s win.
Sky View coach Vanessa Hall drew up a play to get the ball in Radford’s hands at midcourt and then let her read the situation and take the last shot or dump it into the post for Claire Fischer if it opened up.
Radford drove right and went around Payne’s screen, and when her defender fell down she was all alone and let the ball fly with one second remaining.
One night after scoring a career high, Radford struggled to get her shot going on 6-of-18 shooting. She had zero 3-pointers to that point in the game.
“They see Hannah go off so obviously they’re going to set a game plan for Hannah and so yeah tonight was a little bit harder, which I think just shows the type of player Hannah is, the fact that it was a little more difficult and she still went after it,” said Hall.
With the win, Sky View advances to Saturday’s 3 p.m. state championship and will face top seed Ridgeline, a team it already lost to twice in region play.
“It’s always fun to get to that moment, and some of these girls have been here before. We’re playing a team we know well. Tomorrow we’re going to get into a gym and we’re going to make a game plan and then we’re going to have to make some adjustments as we get here just like we did today,” said Hall. “This is what the whole thing is about, we started in November for this moment. And it’s fun that we’re able to be here.”
Friday was a grind for the Bobcats, who shot just 36% from the field, but they just kept chipping away at the deficit throughout the second half. A big key was attacking the paint and taking advantage of Snow Canyon’s foul trouble. Sky View ultimately finished 18 of 24 from the foul line.
Snow Canyon, meanwhile only made 8 of 17 free throws. That was a big factor in the outcome.
In the final minute, the Warriors missed the front end of three 1-and-1s and Sky View scored at the other end each time. Radford made two free throws with 36 seconds left to cut it to a 57-55 deficit, and then Karlee Allen tied it with a jumper with 25 seconds remaining.
After one last free throw miss, Sky View was in position to play for the last shot and Radford made the most of it.
Claire Fischer had a huge game as well for Sky View in the win as she led the Bobcats with 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the foul line.
Snow Canyon’s Olivia Hamlin led all scorers with 33 point to go along with her 12 rebounds.
Ridgeline 74, Green Canyon 33
In the 4A quarterfinals on Thursday, top-ranked Ridgeline let Desert Hills hang around for a half before blowing things open in the second half. A day later in the semifinals, the Riverhawks weren’t messing around.
Ridgeline played suffocating defense in the first half and was clinical at the offensive end in building a 21-point halftime lead as it ran away from Green Canyon for an emphatic 74-33 victory at Utah State.
Ridgeline had three players score in double figures, led by Elise Livingston and Emilee Skinner who went off for 21 points each, with Skinner adding 15 rebounds.
“In state playoffs everyone is excited to play and whatnot and we just really wanted to get back to where we were last year and hopefully bring it home this year,” said Skinner, a sophomore who is closing in on 1,000 career points.
Ridgeline will now try and put the finishing touches on a perfect 25-0 season when it faces the Sky View in Saturday’s 4A state championship at 3 p.m.
Ridgeline lost to Desert Hills in last year’s state championship in double overtime, but it will be the big favorite Saturday no matter which team it plays.
“We just have to take it step by step, what’s right in front of us, simplifying the game instead of worrying about the outcome,” said Ridgeline coach Ainsli Jenks.
During region play, Ridgeline beat Green Canyon by six points and then by 35 points, and fast starts in each quarter on Friday ensured the third showdown unfolded much like the first.
Ridgeline opened the first quarter on a 19-4 run, the second quarter on a 14-4 run, the third quarter on a 10-5 run and outscored Green Canyon 17-2 in the fourth quarter.
The team led 21-13 after the first quarter and then 42-21 at the half as it shot 57% from the field while limiting Green Canyon to 27% shooting.
“That’s actually something we talked about before the game. A game is 32 minutes, Green Canyon is a good team, they’re well coached, they have incredible athletes, we’ve seen the kind of numbers they can put up and the type of games they can put together, so today we really broke down let’s go quarter to quarter,” said Jenks.
Her players’ competitiveness contributes to that success, but Jenks said so does playing team basketball as Ridgeline finished with 16 assists — it averages 15 assists per game.
“That’s a lot of points coming off that extra pass and I think that’s a big deal for us,” said Jenks.
Skinner led the way with six assists, with Hallee Smith adding four assists. Macie Brown had another big game in the win for Ridgeline as she recorded 12 points and seven assists.