Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s 5A quarterfinal games at the University of Utah.
There’s a reason why the West Panthers are still undefeated and the favorites to win the 5A girls basketball state championship.
Coach Olosaa Solovi said his team has talent, depth and aggressiveness, but Tuesday evening it showed off Kylee Falatea, who scored 34 points as West defeated Brighton 80-61 in a quarterfinal matchup at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
The win was West’s third this season against its closest region opponent. Falatea had 24 points and six rebounds by halftime to give the Panthers a double-digit lead, and they never let the Bengals threaten.
Kaydence Falatea added 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Fina Tuha had nine points. West put 11 players on the floor in this contest and 10 scored.
Solovi said it wasn’t West’s best outing but it was good enough to move the Panthers into Wednesday’s semifinal against Salem Hills.
“We just focused on playing our style of ball,” said Solovi, whose team has won 59 games in the last three seasons after it earned just one win each in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.
“Our goal is to get shots. We push the ball hard and move it around. We’re also 10 or 11 players deep and many of them can have breakout games at a time.”
Brighton also played well. Against many other opponents, the Bengals might have had enough to win but they had no answer for Kylee Falatea.
“We played hard. We knew what to expect, so we concentrated on handling their physicality,” said Brighton coach Kane Stokes, whose team lost 83-40 to West just two weeks ago. “We welcomed the challenge … embraced it.”
A junior guard, Kylee Falatea is West’s leading scorer at 18.9 points per game. She played almost the entire game Tuesday and made 14 of 25 shots, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. She also had three of West’s 16 assists.
“She can score like this because she gets good shots,” said Solovi.
West’s bench players contributed 21 points and 11 rebounds and responded to every Brighton rally. Those rallies were often headed by sharpshooter Sophie Nielsen, who paced her team with 26 points.
Olivia Stephens added 15.
West won the rebounding battle 41-33, and also earned several extra opportunities by grabbing 21 offensive boards. Some of those circumstances came from just by having bigger players, but West also hustled after loose balls.
The Panthers made 32 of 71 shots, compared to Brighton’s 24 of 56.
The loss ended Brighton’s five-game win streak and put a sour end on its 17-8 season. Still, Stokes said there were plenty of highlights.
“We were two or three wins from earning a seed good enough (at the state tournament) that would allow us to challenge for a championship,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the girls.”
Wasatch 56, Timpview 46
Wasatch coach Audrey Hull feels her team this year is a special one, but it’s apparent that if the Wasps are going to end a 16-year championship drought in girls basketball, they’re going to have to earn it.
Wasatch took another step toward that goal Tuesday evening after Peyton Behnke and Mahala Speredon scored 14 points each in the Wasps’ 56-46 win over Region 7 foe Timpview in a quarterfinal game at the 5A state tournament inside the University of Utah’s Jon M. Huntsman Center.
Wasatch rallied from an early deficit and came alive in the fourth quarter to edge the Thunderbirds for the third time this season. Behnke played a big role, making a pair of 3-pointers and going 8-of-8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
“This team has ice water in its veins,” said Hull afterward. “The difference was our ability to make shots and get rebounds when it counted. We’ve been battle-tested all year in region and do what it takes.”
Hull said her squad was dealt a tough draw in the tournament. The Wasps finished the regular season with a 19-3 record and earned a No. 2 seed but barely got by Maple Mountain in an opening round home game.
Hull said playing in Utah’s cavernous arena might have had her players on edge early but they recalled last season, when they enjoyed a lot of success before losing to eventual champion Bountiful in the title contest.
The Wasps will get a chance to avenge that loss, too. About 17 hours after this game ended, they must take on the 22-2 Redhawks in a 12:30 p.m. game.
“I don’t know how it will turn out but we’ll certainly give them everything we’ve got,” Hull said.
That will likely include endurance and the ability to respond in tough situations. Timpview, the No. 7 seed after a fourth-place region finish, gave Wasatch all it could handle.
Led by Tasi Galeia (16 points), Lena Ballin (11) and Livia Eyre (10), the T-Birds led 12-8 after the first quarter and forced a 31-31 tie as the third period ended.
Galeia’s 3-point shooting lifted them to a 43-41 lead with just over three minutes remaining when the tide turned.
Behnke responded with a 3-pointer, and then a series of Timpview turnovers and missed shots resulted in fouls — and Wasatch free-throw opportunities.
Behnke, who made the all-tournament team last year, made all of her charity shots Tuesday sandwiched between another 3-pointer, and Fili Liava’a connected on 3-of-4 from the line.
Timpview’s only response was a long trey that Galeia banked off the glass.
“It’s tough to beat a team three times. I love this atmosphere and I’m proud of these girls,” Hull said. “They’ve been here and felt what it was like. Timpview gave us all we could handle. We handled it and now we have to come back and quickly do it again.”
Salem Hills 44, Cedar Valley 34
Salem Hills hit the proverbial switch in the second half of Tuesday’s 5A quarterfinal.
Trailing by nine points early in the third quarter, the No. 4 seed Skyhawks went on a massive 28-9 scoring spurt the rest of the game to rally past No. 5 Cedar Valley for the comfortable 44-34 win at the University of Utah.
With the win, Salem Hills now faces a very quick turnaround when it takes on top seed West in the semifinals on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
Cedar Valley led 21-14 at the half and pushed its lead to 25-16 early in the third quarter. Just when it seemed like the Aviators had the inside track at a semifinal berth, the roles reversed.
Salem Hills closed the third quarter on a 14-1 run to take a 30-26 lead into the fourth quarter. It extended the lead to 10 midway through the fourth quarter as it stretched the scoring run out to 22-3.
Cedar Valley eventually strung a few buckets together, including a big 3-pointer by Savannah Klodt that cut the deficit to 38-34 with 2:05 remaining.
The Aviators had a couple quality looks at 3-pointers on their next offensive sequence that could’ve really tightened up the game, but neither dropped as Salem Hills pulled away from the free throw line in the final minute.
Salem Hills limped to the finish line this season, losing its final two games of the regular season to Maple Mountain and Cedar Valley. It regrouped to beat Springville in the second round after a first-round by, but it stagnated through an awful first half on Tuesday.
It figured things out in the second half to secure the win.
Bountiful 57, Spanish Fork 16
Entering Tuesday’s 5A quarterfinals, No. 3-seeded Bountiful had lost only two games this season, its season opener against Copper Hills and a late December meeting with Snow Canyon.
Since the second loss on Dec. 20, Bountiful had won 15 straight, only one of which by less than 10 points.
The No. 22-seeded Spanish Fork Dons, meanwhile, had done something fairly remarkable through the opening two rounds of the state tournament, winning back-to-back games after winning only three in the entire regular season.
It was a true David versus Goliath matchup to start 5A quarterfinal action inside the Huntsman Center Tuesday.
In this case, Goliath took care of business in convincing fashion.
Buoyed by a 24-2 third quarter, Bountiful handled Spanish Fork for a 57-16 victory. Charlotte Johnson and Taylor Harvey led the way for the Redhawks with 13 and 12 points, respectively, supported by strong game by Maleah Nelson (10 points) and Mae Johnson (nine rebounds, four blocks and four steals).
The Redhawks were nothing short of dominant. Spanish Fork never scored more than six points in a single period, made just six of 37 shot attempts (16%) and turned the ball over 26 times.
The Dons also went 0 for 11 from 3-point range and sent the Redhawks to the free-throw line 26 times (compared to just 10 trips for themselves).
Bountiful, meanwhile, shot 44% from the field, making 19 of 43 shot attempts. The Redhawks out-rebounded Spanish Fork 36-27, handed out 11 assists compared to just one by the Dons, and recorded 16 steals and five blocks.
With all of that, though, Spanish Fork was in the game at halftime.
Bountiful led 21-8 at the break, and Redhawks head coach Joel Burton noted that his team disrespected Spanish Fork to start. They underestimated the Dons, overlooked them in the first half.
“We felt like we kind of disrespected Spanish (Fork) because they kind of overlooked them there in the first half, and even though we’d been talking, ‘You can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t do it,’ we still felt kind of like they did it.
“And I mean, Spanish (Fork), even though they hadn’t won many games, they’d won their last two against teams in our region. I told them, ‘Let’s be awake. Let’s be aware.‘”
Bountiful didn’t heed the warning though, until a “butt chewing,” at halftime.
“It seemed to almost take a butt chewing here in the locker room at halftime to kind of get us to dialed in and lock in,” Burton said. “Then we probably played a little more like we’re used to seeing our kids play.”
Whatever was said in the locker room at the half worked.
Bountiful was absolutely dominant in the third quarter, on defense especially. Spanish Fork scored only two points in the period, as the Dons were completely smothered by the Bountiful defense.
“We felt like we could attack their ball handlers pretty good,” Burton said. “Just get turnovers, and we knew if we could get easy baskets, other stuff would start coming even though we didn’t shoot well here tonight.”
Ultimately, Bountiful looked the part of 5A title contender, completely outmatching a Spanish Fork team that had been surprised to get to the quarterfinals in the first place.
Burton noted that the next test for the Redhawks will be a stiff one, be it Timpview or Wasatch.
“We’ve got to be focused from second one and not wait until halftime, because these two (teams) are a whole bunch better than Spanish (Fork),” he said.
“Not trying to knock Spanish Fork, but (Timpview and Wasatch) both beat them twice in their region, so we’ve gotta be focused and ready to come in here, whichever one we get.”