Kanab’s defensive scheme could not have worked any better in Wednesday’s 2A state championship against Enterprise.
The Wolves struggled with their outside shot all tournament long. Enterprise’s offense stayed alive through the state tournament by running actions through the high post and getting the ball on the block.
However, Cowboys’ head coach Klint Glover decided to establish a defensive scheme earlier in the season to get the most out of star center Rylee Little. The idea is simple: By running a zone instead of a man defense, Little can stay in and protect the paint.
The Kanab zone turned out to be the Achilles heel for Enterprise, and the Cowboys ran away with a dominant 54-29 championship win.
“We’re a man team over the years, and we’ve been, with Rylee, it’s just a little different,” Glover said. “Having her running around on the perimeter, hedging, and playing man isn’t what I wanted this year, so we changed it. We kind of threw the Syracuse zone in, and she was the anchor of it.”
The defense completely shut down Enterprise, and it struggled to find any consistent offense throughout the championship game. The Wolves had rebounded well all tournament, and it did Wednesday, but it couldn’t finish on its putbacks due to Kanab’s size.
Enterprise scored only 10 points in the first half. However, Kanab’s offense wasn’t flowing much better.
The Wolves’ rebounding and forced turnovers allowed Kanab to score only 19 first-half points. They were also double and triple-teaming Little when she got the ball.
Kanab started using Little’s gravity more efficiently in the second half. Once it figured that out, it took off.
“When girls are doubling me, it just means one of my teammates is open to score,” Little said. “I try to get them the ball. I try to score when I can.”
Cowboys’ sophomore Kaycee Castagno led the offensive push in the second half with 15 points, including three steals. She got the offense going in the third quarter by getting out in transition. In total, Kanab forced 24 turnovers.
“In the locker room, (Glover) said he wanted to push it, see if they were tired, just give it our all, put it all out there,” Castagno said. “I think we really executed that.”
The zone defense continued to dominate, and it forced more turnovers at the point of attack. The Kanab guards made sure Enterprise couldn’t penetrate the zone through the high post.
With her teammates making plays around her, Little started to heat up herself. She led the scoring, rebounding and playmaking efforts with 17 points, 12 reboudns and five assists.
“She should have had 10 (assists), probably,” said Glover. “Our girls did a really good job. We told them to ask yourself, ‘Are you being guarded? If you’re not being guarded, cut, catch and finish.’ We cut and caught some of the time and finished some of the time, which is all you can hope for.”
Bentlee Rogers and Hadlee Holt led Enterprise with eight point each. Holt added 12 rebounds. However, the Wolves rarely got an open look and were held to 25% shooting overall.
The win only continues the Kanab dynasty. It’s now won four of the last five 2A state championships. This win was extra sweet as it redeemed last year’s semifinal loss to South Sevier.
“Four of five is a pretty good accomplishment,” said Glover. “You look back on that game last year, and we had a really bad situation. We had just mounted a comeback, and we’re within a few points and had six on the floor, and it was kind of a sad thing.
“There’s no such thing as no regrets if you’re gonna play ball. We gave it our best last year and fell a little bit short. That makes this even sweeter. That’s the thing about losses, you got to lose a little to know how it feels to win.”
Deseret News 2A All-Tournament Team
MVP — Rylee Little, Kanab
Kaycee Castano, Kanab
Jaycee Barlow, Enterprise
Bentlee Rogers, Enterprise
Danzee Bradshaw, Beaver
Ellie Stephens, North Summit