Box score
Taylor Harvey is the x-factor that makes two-time 5A state champion Bountiful great. The Redhawks are pretty dang good without Harvey as well.
Forced to play without Harvey the entire second half on Tuesday after she got poked in the eye, Bountiful went out and dominated defensively in its Region 5 showdown with Clearfield, running away with the 46-35 victory.
Tied 22-22 at the half after a late surge by Clearfield with Harvey in the locker room, Bountiful stormed out of the third quarter scoring 16 straight points and coasted from there.
“I like how they locked in and started executing the assignments we asked them to do,” said Bountiful coach Joel Burton.
Both teams came into the game with identical 4-0 records in region, but Bountiful’s height and athleticism defensively gave it a leg up against Clearfield’s quick backcourt.
Milika Satuala was the catalyst on both ends of the floor for Bountiful as she not only led all scorers with 19 points, but she also played a key role defensively along the perimeter.
Harvey scored 12 of Bountiful’s first 18 points before exiting midway through the second quarter as she took a hand to the face on an entry pass under the basket.
Bountiful’s trainer cleared Harvey to return to the game once her vision cleared up, but by the start of the third quarter it still hadn’t. With the Redhawks racing to the quick lead in the third quarter, Harvey’s absence became a non factor.
Both meetings last year between these two teams were extremely close, and Burton admitted he didn’t get much sleep the past two nights trying to come up with a game plan to slow down Clearfield.
Early on, things didn’t quite go how Burton would’ve hoped as point guard Izzy Wyaskett did a good job of attacking the paint and getting Bountiful into foul trouble.
“She’s a tough guard. We knew coming in that she was going to dictate how these guys do and we had a pretty good plan for her, but I don’t think our guards realized how quick she was even though we played her last year,” said Burton.
Things started to go Bountiful’s way early in the second quarter with a 6-0 run to jump ahead 18-12. After Harvey’s injury though, Clearfield responded with a 10-4 run to tie things at halftime after late back-to-back layups by Wyaskett and Brighton Bernards.
The momentum didn’t carry over into the second half.
Bountiful scored on its first eight offensive possessions to extend its lead to 38-22 by the time Clearfield finally scored its first points of the half at the 2:37 mark. Satuala scored eight of her 19 points during the stretch, with Maleah Nelson chipping in with four points.
Defensively, the Redhawks held Clearfield to just 4-of-23 shooting in the second half.
During one sequence, 6-foot-3 center Mae Johnson blocked a Clearfield 3-pointer attempt and then a few seconds later another shot in the lane.
“The third quarter I was just so impressed by what we did defensively,” added Burton.
Bountiful improved to 11-2 with the victory, but Burton’s making sure his players don’t get caught looking ahead to a possible 3-peat in March.
“We don’t really talk about the end. All of us probably think about it, but even in the locker room as we were talking we said celebrate the heck out of this one and then we started talking about Roy on Friday night,” said Burton.