OGDEN — Through two and half quarters of Thursday evening’s 4A quarterfinal matchup between the defending champion Cedar City Reds and the Logan Grizzlies, it was anyone’s game.
The top-seeded Reds were the far and away favorite, the No. 8 seeded Grizzlies serious underdogs, and yet midway through the third quarter the Grizzlies trailed by only three points. For a Cedar City team that had dominated in practically every contest this season, it was jarring.
“Our pressure is going to pay off. It may not be in the first quarter or the second, but at some point it is going to pay off.” — Cedar City coach Corry Nielsen
“I tell you what, we were in a funk,” Cedar City head coach Corry Nielsen said. “We had some self doubt and that doesn’t happen very often.”
Nor should it have considering the Reds’ dominance this year, which included 21 wins to just two losses and victories where they routinely doubled their opponents point total. And yet there the Reds were, with a spot in the semifinals on the line, doubting themselves.
They needn’t have.
Spurred by the play of Logann Laws, who finished with 12 points, not to mention Japrix Weaver, Mayci Torgerson and Samantha Johnston, Cedar City soundly defeated Logan 65-39.
Laws sparked the major turnaround, scoring seven points in the third that enabled the Reds to pull away by 10 points by the end of the period.
“She took it upon herself,” Nielsen said. “At some point a player has to say, ‘You know what, things aren’t going well, I have to change. I have to make a difference.’ She understood that and she made the plays to give us a spark.”
In the fourth quarter, Cedar City was its true self, dominant and aggressive, just simply overwhelming. Over the final 5:48 of the game, after Nielsen told his team, “This is where we play our best defense,” the Reds held the Grizzlies to only four points. They limited Logan to 10 points total in the final period, while scoring 26 points themselves.
Cedar City 65, Logan 39
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Leading scorers
Cedar City: Japrix Weaver, 17
Logan: Amber Kartchner, 16
“Our pressure is going to pay off,” Nielsen said. “It may not be in the first quarter or the second, but at some point it is going to pay off.”
Defense is the core of Cedar City’s championship-winning philosophy and as far as specifics go, they strive to hold all opponents under 35 points per game.
“That is what we preach; that is what we practice,” Nielsen said. “Our girls have bought in and we fight like crazy.”
On Thursday, that defensive effort was focused on Logan star Amber Kartchner, to great effect. Kartchner scored 16 points but made only 6 of 18 shot attempts.
“I thought that was tremendous,” said Nielsen. “To hold their best player, she had 16 points, but she had to take 18 shots to get them. That was our game plan. They don’t always go exactly how you want them to, but sometimes they do.”
It certainly didn’t hurt to have the caliber of players that Cedar City has, a team of five stars, per Nielsen.
“That is who we are,” he said. “We don’t have one star, we have five. With our team, you may be able to stop one of us for a game, but we have three or four others who are going to keep coming at you.”
To his point, Weaver scored a game-high 17 points, Torgerson added 16 and Johnston 14. All of it — Laws’ timely play, the defense and the multitude of stars — helped Cedar City survive and advance in a way only they could, with a convincing 26-point victory.
Up next for the Reds is a semifinals matchup with the Green Canyon Wolves at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow.