High school girls basketball: South Sevier finishes season with back and forth championship game win

The South Sevier Rams had been waiting four seasons to get back to the basketball pinnacle, and Saturday the Rams accomplished the goal with a dramatic 58-57 victory over North Summit in the 2A championship game.

“You know, this has been four years in the making,” said South Sevier head coach Tracy Johnson, who now has won his first state championship as a head coach. “They were here as freshman, and they were able to train and work their butts off to earn this title.”

South Sevier and North Summit played a very close back and forth game from the opening tip, with the largest lead of the game being eight points.

The teams were tied at 12 after the first quarter and South Sevier led by just one at halftime, 29-28, despite the usually potent Sydnee Patterson being held to just five points and North Summit’s Hayzlyn Murdock having 21.

While Patterson was limited, Kinley Jenson and Caitlin Nielson picked up for the Rams to help them take the slim lead.

“Both teams played hard,” said Johnson. “It was incredible. We had all the confidence in the world and knew what we needed to adjust to come out during the most important game of the season.”

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The Rams knew going into the second half that they needed to be able to contain Murdock better than they had in the first half, which they were able to accomplish, reducing her to only four shot attempts in the whole second half compared to the 15 she got off in the first half.

Murdock scored just eight points in the second half, and three of those were on a buzzer beater at the end of the game to move the final difference from four points to one.

“Our goal was obviously to hold her to zero points total for the second half, but we will take eight,” Johnson said. “She was our main goal at the break. We knew if we could contain her, it would help up the rest of the game.”

Patterson, meanwhile, scored five points early in the third quarter and finished the night with 14.

“It feels amazing just because of all the hard work my team has put in,” Patterson said of winning the title. “We put so much love into the game and just to see it come back to us its just an amazing feeling. It feels great to bring a trophy back to the town. They really deserve this. We’ve been a basketball town so we love it.”

2A All-Tournament Team

MVP: Sydnee Patterson - South Sevier

Rylee Little - Kanab

Sydnee Patterson - South Sevier

Hayzlyn Murdock - North Summit

Hartlynn Richins - North Summit

Samantha Kartchner - Draper APA