High school girls basketball: Monday’s 2A quarterfinal recap, Enterprise, Beaver, Kanab, North Summit advance to semis

Here’s a recap of Monday’s 2A quarterfinals at UVU, with No. 3 Enterprise advancing to the semis. This story will be updated.

Enterprise 57, Draper APA 46

You give yourself a good shot at winning a basketball game when you pull in 56 rebounds.

No. 3 Enterprise had to fight for it, but it dominated the boards en route to a 57-49 quarterfinal win over Draper APA. The Wolves pulled in 22 offensive rebounds as well.

“One thing we said at the very beginning of the year is, ‘Our goal is to beat the rebounding margin, especially on the offensive end,’” Enterprise head coach Lance Jones said. “That is one of the things we really focused on and told our girls: ‘If we can win the defensive and the offensive rebounding margin, we’re going to beat a lot of teams.”

Despite the heavily lopsided rebounding battle, it was close through nearly all 32 minutes of the quarterfinal.

Enterprise held a slim five-point lead at halftime, but a 17-point third quarter from Draper APA helped close the gap. It did so with its outside shot as the Eagles connected on three consecutive 3-pointers out of the half.

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The Eagles’ offense was led by Lexi LeRoy‘s 12 points, while Kate LeRoy added 11 points on three 3-pointers.

Meanwhile, the outside shot was not there for Enterprise — that is, until Eliza Balajadia connected from outside to energize the offense.

“The shot Balajadia hit just really sent the girls momentum,” Jones said. “With the size that we have, our guards know that they’re going to start collapsing. It’s going to open up. It doesn’t always come in the first half, but if they just keep feeding the post, then it’s going to come to them in the second half.”

Draper APA still managed to build its largest lead of the evening with a four-point advantage in the fourth quarter.

With the season on the line, Enterprise relied on its rebounding and rallied for an 11-0 run to close the game.

Jaycee Barlow, Hadlee Holt and Bentlee Rogers were massive for Enterprise as they all combined for 46 points and 38 rebounds.

“That’s a good Draper team,” Jones said. “They play hard, they play fast, and that was one of the things that we were really concerned about is, ‘Can we stay with their speed?’ We’ve got the size. We just were concerned with their speed, and then in the fourth quarter, we were both gassed, but luckily we were able to pull it out.”

Beaver 43 Millard 34

Beaver has faced its fair share of obstacles this season. Its 2A quarterfinal matchup against Millard was anything but pretty, but Beaver was able to grab some momentum at key moments and walked away with the victory 43-34 to advance to the 2A semifinals.

Beaver was led by Britlee Bastian, who filled up the score sheet with 14 points, two rebounds, two assists, three steals and one block. Danzee Bradshaw also had herself a stellar game, contributing 11 points and taking control of the glass with 12 rebounds.

“I’m just proud of our girls. We really struggled in a lot of areas tonight and you have to give credit to Millard. They are a really good basketball team. Our girls just played with a lot of heart and guts, and that’s what they’ve been doing all year,” said Beaver head coach Jonathan Marshall.

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It was a very sluggish first half for both teams, especially offensively. Millard had a 15-14 lead at half, and it wasn’t until towards the end of the third quarter that Beaver’s offense came alive and took control of the game. Beaver shot just 18% from the field in the first half but really turned things around in the second half, improving to 53%.

For Marshall, it wasn’t about sending a message or making adjustments in the locker room at half. It was more knowing that once his team could start to get a few shots to fall, they could relax more and grow in confidence as the game went on, which they did.

“I think our girls finally relaxed a little bit. We started getting some shots to fall. We just had a hard time making shots to start,” added Marshall. “I thought our defense was actually really good in the first half, but our offense struggled. Our shooting percentage was way low and we had too many turnovers. We finally got some shots to fall, and our press really gave Millard some trouble.”

Marshall went on to say that ending the third quarter strong and feeding off each other’s energy was the key in pulling away and grabbing the victory.

“You could see it in the third quarter. We finally got some energy and the girls on the bench were cheering for one another. We were able to grab that momentum and come away with the win.”

Kanab 45 San Juan 34

Top-seeded Kanab had no problem handling No. 8 San Juan, grabbing a 45-34 victory.

“We’ve played them twice during the year, so we thought it was a warmup for our girls. I thought they played well. We kind of got back in the groove of things,” said Kanab head coach Klint Glover. “We got a lot of young girls, a lot of sophomores, and even freshmen that play some significant minutes. It was kind of important for them to get their eyes wide in that first game.”

The defense was strong all night for Kanab, and they played just about as well as you could have asked on both sides of the ball.

“We told our girls, ‘We just have to stay mad. It wasn’t a great win. We executed pretty good, but by this time of the year, we ought to not be having so many turnovers. It’s going to have to be better. We’re going to have to go to the offensive boards harder and take care of the basketball better,’” Glover added.

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Kanab out-rebounded San Juan 22-10 in the first half and held it to just 17% shooting. The defense gave San Juan fits all night, causing 22 turnovers for the game.

Kanab was in complete control at half with a commanding 27-11 lead.

Kanab was led by standout and Utah Ute commit Rylee Little, who had 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 3 blocks.

With how dominant Kanab was and the big lead it got out to in the first half, it could have been to get complacent and already start thinking about the semifinals. San Juan tried to make a push, outscoring Kanab 23-18. Glover knows his team will need to sharpen up some things if it hopes to make it all the way to the end.

“We’ve had some games where it’s hard to maintain intensity,” Glover said. “What we would like them to do is maintain intensity on defense and rebounding and then try to relax a little more on offense. We want them to relax a little on offense, but we still have to execute. We did in most cases tonight but in some other cases we didn’t.”

North Summit 59 Duchesne 49

No. 4 North Summit pulled away late, finding a way past No. 5 Duchesne 59-49.

North Summit received a clutch performance from Ellie Stephens, who padded the scoresheet with 23 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and three steals.

“It’s always tough to play a team for the third time, and we split the previous two meetings against them,” said North Summit head coach Jerre Holmes. “I just thought the girls came out and were really aggressive. We got in a little foul trouble in the first half, but I’d rather have that than just not hustling. We said today before the game, we just can’t let them out work us, and I felt like we worked hard today. Anytime you get up that early, it’s hard to hold onto that.”

North Summit shot 52% in the first half while holding Duchesne to 33%.

The defense was on strong display for North Summit in the first half, limiting Duchesne to just five points in the first quarter, while the offense was able to create a little breathing room on its way to a 29-21 advantage over Duchesne at the halftime break.

Duchesne looked to make a run to start the second half, scoring five straight points to start the third quarter and cutting the deficit to four.

North Summit had an answer, however, eventually hanging on to a 42-35 lead after the third quarter.

“Especially in a state tournament, it’s a game of shifts and momentum changes,” Holmes said. “I thought we held our composure extremely well for the most part. When they came back and cut into our lead, we were able to stay composed and that’s what you have to do. It’s tight pressure so it’s really hard.”

Duchesne did its best to claw their way back, but North Summit was relentless and pulled away late to grab the victory and move on to the semifinals.

If North Summit wants to get to the championship game, it will to have to go through the No. 1 team, Kanab. It’s a challenge that might see insurmountable, but Holmes says that he will have his team prepared and ready to give it their best shot.

“Kanab is the No. 1 team in the state for a reason. Riley Little is extremely good inside; she can play out if she needs to and she’s surrounded by a bunch of good shooters. We’ll have a walkthrough tomorrow and try to figure out what we’re going to do, but we’ll have a plan. We’re just grateful for the opportunity to be in the winner’s bracket.”