Here’s a recap of the 5A semifinals at the University of Utah on Wednesday.
West 52, Salem Hills 51
Prior to Wednesday’s 5A semifinal, The West Panthers had been taking teams down all season long with ease, winning by an average of 31 ppg. Salem Hills pushed them to the brink in a hard-fought game at the University of Utah, but West found a way to survive to keep its undefeated season alive.
Kaydence Falatea drained a baseline 3-pointer for West with 8.2 seconds remaining, and then West’s defense got a defensive stop at the other end as the top-seed Panthers survived for the 52-51 win over No. 4 seed Salem Hills.
Falatea scored the last six points for West, the first three points came when she tied the game at 49-49 with 2:37 remaining.
“We knew if we were ever going to get in a situation like that we were going to Kaydence for a corner,” said West High coach Olosaa Solovi.
Even though most of the West’s games this season have been blowouts, it was the experiences earlier this year that prepared West for the tight game today.
In late December, West played four games in four days in California coming from behind late in three of them to pull off victories.
“Getting these blowouts, give you a false sense of security. We went to California and scheduled a bunch of back-to-backs knowing that we were going to be in this situation,” said Solovi.
With the win. West advances to Friday’s 5A state championship against defending champion Bountiful at 5 p.m.
Wednesday’s game was tight throughout, with West never leading by more than six points and Salem Hills by more than four points.
The Falatea sisters led the team in scoring accounting for 36 of West’s 52 points.
“Obviously our star players Kylee Falatea and Fina Tuha those guys really carry us, but it was our role players that came in and made some crucial stops and hit some big shots,” said Solovi.
None of those more critical than a crucial jump ball forced by Mia Martinez with 18 remaining, which came just after an offensive foul by West.
West retaining possession after the jump ball, set the stage for Kaydence Falatea’s heroics.
Salem Hills inbounded the ball taking it the length of the court but its last second shot went long and West prevailed.
Kylee Falatea finished with 24 points, six steals and five assists whiel Kaydence Falatea added 12 points and five rebounds.
Salem Hills had three players score in double figures in the hearbreaking loss as junior Chenielle Nye had a monster game with 19 points, 21 rebounds and four blocks. Alexa Vance scored 17 points for the Skyhawks — many of those in the second half — with Brooke Warren chipping in with 11.
Bountiful 62, Wasatch 43
Bountiful’s girls basketball team is one win away from a 3-peat.
The Redhawks played suffocating defense in the second half on Wednesday, breaking open a close game with a dominant third quarter as it marched to the 62-43 5A semifinal win over Wasatch.
With the win, Bountiful advances to Friday’s 5A state championship at 5 p.m. against the East-Salem Hills winner.
“I love the way these girls can play defense. They can lock in. That’s the No. 1 thing that matters to us. we want to win, and we’re going to try to be great defensively as we do it,” said Bountiful coach Joel Burton.
Bountiful was the stingiest defensive team in 5A throughout the season, holding opponents to 35 or fewer points in 16 of 24 games coming into the semis at the University of Utah.
Wasatch felt that pain all game. Even though it eclipsed the 35-point threshold, it shot just 25 percent and turned the ball over 17 times as it struggled to deal with Bountiful’s length at most positions.
Wednesday’s game was a rematch of last year’s 5A championship, which was basically over just eight minutes into the game as Bountiful jumped out to a 17-0 lead.
“Honestly, the way the game started today was more what I expected last year. Last year, that was just crazy, just I couldn’t have dreamed that,” said Barton.
In the semis, Wasatch did well to keep it close in the first half trailing only 9-8 after the first quarter and 26-20 at the break.
In the third, Bountiful used a 10-0 run fueled by its frenetic defense to open up a double-digit lead as it coasted to the championship.
“I’d been hesitant to let us go into our 100 defense, just simply due to we played last night. But these girls love to play that 100 defense, just going up and being scrappy and making people’s lives as miserable as they can make them for not just half court, but for full court,” said Burton.
With the uptick in defensive intensity, Bountiful outscored Wasatch 17-7 to take a 43-27 lead into the fourth quarter.
Taylor Harvey was her usually dominant self as the senior racked up 23 points, eight rebounds and six blocks in the second-to-last game of her decorate multi-sport high school career.
“I’ve referred to her several times as our Andrei Kirilenko with where she’s just that stat stuffer, and just love it. So she does amazing,” said Burton.
Milika Satuala was clutch with 13 points, six rebounds and five assists. Barton credited Mae Johnson with outstanding defense on Wasatch big Mahala Speredon as she helped hold her to just six points. Johnson also recorded 11 rebounds and four steals.
Satuala, a junior, switched to point guard this season and Burton said she just continues to get better each game with her new role.
“We changed Milika’s game at the start of the year, because we’re just trying to help her get where she wants to go in the future. We needed her playing more point guard. And so it took us a while to get to where we were comfortable with it, or Malika was comfortable with it, but it’s unreal what she’s doing now,” said Burton