The Tabiona Tigers girls basketball team secured its fourth consecutive trip to the 1A championship game by knocking off second seed Panguitch.
Tabiona took the 36-31 win Friday night at the Sevier Valley Center.
“We knew coming into this we were gonna have a dog fight,” said Tabiona coach Jake Fabrizio. “We knew that we were going to have to play our best game.”
Leading the way for the Tigers was Maycee Rhoades, who is in her fourth year at the state tournament’s final round. She put up 14 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
“Maycee was gonna have to bring a lot to the plate and she did,” Fabrizio said.
Rhoades hit back-to-back jumpers in the final stanza, and then hit both her free-throw attempts with 17.2 seconds to play to ice the win.
One of the keys to the win was the players having faith in themselves and the system, Fabrizio said.
“We had girls out there, including our sophomores, that believed in our system, believed in the program and believed in their defense,” Fabrizio said.
Tabiona’s defense was able to hold Panguitch to just two scoring plays in the first quarter, which ended with a Tiger lead of 11-5. Panguitch made several runs at the lead throughout the game but never got it.
Panguitch was led by Makena Owens’ 15 points.
Helping push the Tabiona effort was a group of sophomores, including Kaidence Pippy, who netted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Makela Sanders, Joy Gines and Tayliya Allred also all contributed to the effort.
“I’m just very proud of my team,” Fabrizio said. “They took everything that we’ve taught them over the year and they executed and decided ‘Hey, tonight’s our night.’ We went very deep in the bench and brought about 10 girls and they did what we asked them to do.”
The win pits Tabiona against top-ranked and region rival Rich in Saturday’s championship game. Rich has waltzed through the tournament so far, delivering double digit wins over Monument Valley, Monticello and Wayne.
Rich also secured wins during both previous meetings of the two teams during region play.
The game is set for 4:30 p.m. Saturday.