OGDEN — Led by a total team effort, Cedar is heading back to the 4A girls championship game. The Reds beat Green Canyon 68-61 behind big performances by Logann Laws, Japrix Weaver and Mayci Torgerson.
”I saw two very good teams out there playing. I saw probably six or seven college basketball players on that court. There was a lot of talent on that court tonight and we expected that,” Cedar head coach Corry Nielsen said. “It just came down to a couple of great extra plays.”
Laws scored 20 points, had five rebounds, three assists and stole the ball four times. Japrix Weaver had 19 points and six rebounds and Torgerson had 18 points had five rebounds. Kennedy Eskelson scored 22 points for Green Canyon.
Cedar 68, Green Canyon 61
Leading scorers:
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Cedar: Logann Laws, 20
Green Canyon: Kennedy Eskelson, 22
“It just all comes from the team effort. I couldn’t have done it without my team,” Laws said.
“That’s how we win games. We aren’t the most talented team out there, but everybody knows what they do,” Nielsen said.
After a back-and-forth game throughout, the two teams battled into the fourth quarter with each team trading buckets.
The Reds, up by five, pulled away after five points from Torgerson and a bucket from Laws gave Cedar a 61-54 lead with two minutes remaining.
After that point, the Reds dug in defensively and got stops at key times to prevent a comeback.
“At some point, we’ve got to have two-minute toughness. The last two minutes, you have got to lock down and you have got to stop them. We call that two-minute toughness,” Nielsen said. “I told them two days ago before we even came here, at some point, our defense is going to have to win a game for us. There’s going to be a game in the last two minutes where it’s up for grabs and at some point our defense is going to determine who wins that game.”
Laws turned in one of the biggest defensive plays of the night when she stole the ball and layed it up to extend Cedar’s lead to nine points.
“That’s Logan, that’s who she is. She’s the heart and soul of our team. She has two speeds — fast and faster. At times she gets out of control, but that’s who she is. I’m not going to say ‘Go do things,’ because she is good in the open court and that’s how she plays,” Nielsen said. “She’s a fiery, gutsy, hold-no-prisoners kind of player.”
Now the Reds await the results of the game between Desert Hills and Pine View to find out their opponent in the championship game.
“Both teams present challenges to us. They’re both bigger and (more) physical than we are. We’ll try our best and we’ll try and execute,” Nielsen said. “Whoever we play, they know what we’re going to do and we know what they’re going to do, so there’s not going to be a whole lot of surprises tomorrow with whomever we play.”