High school girls basketball: 6A semifinals — Lone Peak, Copper Hills pull away, set up title game rematch

Here’s a recap of Wednesday’s 6A semifinals at the University of Utah

Copper Hills 50, Bingham 38

A year later, Copper Hills is back in exactly the same position it was a year ago.

The top-seed Grizzlies beat Bingham 50-38 in Wednesday’s 6A semifinal to set up a championship showdown with defending state champ Lone Peak.

A year ago, Copper Hills beat Lone Peak in the regular season but lost by 18 in the state championship. This season it also beat Lone Peak in the regular season, but now they’ll try and figure out a way to beat the champs on the biggest stage in Thursday’s 5 p.m. state championship at the University of Utah.

We’ve got to rely on our defense. Last year we weren’t very good defensively and they got out to a run, and with a talented Lone Peak team, well coached, great players, you’ve got to be on you’re A game,” said Copper Hills Jake Timpson.

“I know they’re a seven seed, but they’re no seven seed, they’ve been a great team all year. They play a tough schedule, they’re in a tough region, this is not going to be easy, just like we knew last year wasn’t going to be easy.”

The confidence of beating Lone Peak earlier in the year should help, but more importantly is the defensive effort it played with against Bingham on Wednesday.

After Bingham jumped out fast in the semis, building an early 10-0, Copper Hills shut things down defensively in holding Bingham to just 28 points the rest of the game.

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In the quarterfinals two nights earlier, Bingham made 12 3-pointers and scored a season-high 72 points in a rout of Fremont.

Copper Hills held region foe Bingham to just 1-of-12 shooting from 3-point range in beating the Miners for the third time this season.

“That’s what I told them my favorite moment of the game was being down 10-0 and not panicking and just being resilient and having grit. Because in these games if you don’t have resiliency, if you don’t have grit, if you can’t move onto the next play you’re going to be out, and I thought our girls did a tremendous job,” said Timpson.

Despite that quality response, Copper Hills only led 33-32 heading into the fourth quarter. That’s when its defense started to take over the game.

“Our defense, we got stops when we needed to and we got rebounds. WE didn’t give them second chance points in the fourth quarter,” said Timpson.

Aspen Frasure scored on back-to-back possessions midway through the fourth to push the lead to 39-33, and then Skylie Barker pushed the lead to 41-33 on the Grizzlies’ next possession with 3:39 remaining.

From there, Copper Hills pulled away from the foul line making 7-of-10 free throws.

Barker led the grizzlies with 17 points and eight rebounds, with Frasure adding 16 points and five rebounds, and Ayla Marston chipping in with 10 points and seven boards.

“This whole year we’ve always relied on Skylie but we’ve had other girls step up every night,” said Timpson. “When they try and take away Skylie we have Aspen. If they leave Ayla open, she’s going to knock down 3s, she’s one of the best 3-point shooters in the state. We have weapons.”

All of those players will need to be clicking to deny Lone Peak a fourth straight state championship on Thursday.

Lone Peak 66, Davis 48

Lone Peak looked every bit the part of a team seeking a fourth-straight state championship in Wednesday’s 6A semifinals at the University of Utah.

It jumped out fast, building a double-digit lead in the first half, and then locked things down defensively in the second en route to an emphatic 66-48 victory over Davis.

It’s never surprising to see a three-time champ back in the final again, but Lone Peak’s path to get there has been surprising.

“It feels amazing. I’m so proud of them. I couldn’t be prouder. The fact that they’ve earned that spot to be here tomorrow is amazing. I’m excited,” said Lone Peak coach Nancy Warner.

With just one returning starter from a year ago, and only one contributing senior on the roster, there were a lot of lessons this year’s Lone Peak needed to learn to get to a championship level.

It lost to Bountiful and Copper Hills in the preseason, and was blown out by two out-of-state teams in a preseason tournament as well. Losing by 56 combined points on back-to-back days to Oak Cliff Academy, Texas and Riverdale Ridge, Colo. was a big reality check. Those are teams Lone Peak would’ve beat in previous years, but not this year.

“I wouldn’t say it rattled them. It just forced them to look inside themselves and realize what they’re capable of, and then figure it out and do it,” said Warner. “So if we learn winning, great. If we learn losing by one, great. If we learn losing by 30, great. We got to learn in all different ways. And so if anything, it taught us resiliency. It taught us how to step up and be better leaders. It taught us how to lock in better defensively.”

Defense has been the catalyst to both wins at the U. this week.

In Monday’s 26-point quarterfinal win over Syracuse, Lone Peak limited the Titans to just 10 second-half points.

On Wednesday, it held Davis to just 15-second half points.

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Offensively, Zuri Nordstrom helped set the tone in the first half, draining 3-of-4 3-pointers and scoring 11 points as she helped Lone Peak jump out to a 40-33 lead.

Conversely, T’Maea Eteuatihad 11 first-half points for the Davis. Considering that he availability was in question after she sprained her ankle in the final three minutes of Monday’s quarterfinal and didn’t return, her presence was a huge lift for the Darts in their quest to dethrone the champs.

“We let her do her thing in the first half, and so there was no question where we needed to focus on in the second half. And that’s where our focus was, trying to limit No. 1’s opportunities. And I thought the girls did a good job of that.”

Eteuati only scored two points in the second half, finishing with a game-high 13 points.

Lone Peak, meanwhile got contribution all up and down its roster.

Nordstrom led Lone Peak with 13 points in the win, while Tati Harness, and Maddie Pope finished with 12 points and Kennedy Woolston added 10.

“Any one of our players on the floor, any one of the five are capable shooters and capable penetrators, and I think they found each other really well,” said Warner, whose team shot well at 47 percent, including making seven 3-pointers.

Davis also shot 47 percent, but only made three triples, both by Sydney Plummer.

With the win, Lone Peak advances to Thursday’s championship and will face the Bingham-Copper Hills winner at 5 p.m.