SALT LAKE CITY — For the last week, all the Tabiona girls basketball team has heard and thought about has been the scoring prowess of Whitehorse’s Keiarra Martin, who entered Thursday’s 1A quarterfinal game averaging over 35 points per game.
With multiple defenders checking Martin, the Tigers held Whitehorse’s leader to 13 points on their way to a 46-35 win.
“We worked all week on guarding Martin and we talked a lot about it,” Tabiona junior Joy Gines said. “We had our two best defenders, Bella Gines and Khloie Pippy, on her all game and they stopped her, plus I thought our help defense was really good tonight.”
Martin had just six first-half points as the Tigers opened up a 23-17 lead at intermission. Joy and Isabella Glines each had eight points at the break for Tabiona.
While the emphasis in the week leading up to Thursday’s quarterfinals was slowing down the Whitehorse offense, coach Jake Fabrizio hammered the point home again at intermission.
“I am very proud of our girls,” Fabrizio said. “We knew they had a couple of really good scorers in Martin and Hannah Clark, and they are a team that can put up a lot of points in a quick hurry. I just kept telling the girls at halftime to just keep defending.”
As comfortable as the first half looked for Tabiona it was Whitehorse that got out of the gates quickly in the second half.
Lakyara Begay opened the scoring with a layup, and on the next possession, Maria Yellowman knocked down a 3-pointer, cutting the lead to 23-22.
The game remained tight through much of the third period with the teams exchanging baskets. A Maecie Hagman shot-clock beating basket put the score at 29-26 before Whitehorse’s Kaleigh Chee’s bank shot cut into the lead.
The Tigers then used a late spurt from a made 3-pointer and Hagman’s fast break layup to extend the lead to 32-26 after three periods of play.
The Tigers finally began to extend the lead when Adree Fabrizio knocked down a 3-pointer for a 37-30 advantage, though Whitehorse answered with a basket from Begay and a 3-pointer from Martin that cut the lead to 37-35.
Every time it looked like Tabiona was rattled, the Tigers just amped up the defense and the final minutes of the contest showed that.
Tabiona closed the game on a 7-0 run to earn a trip to Friday afternoon’s Class 1A semifinals, improving to 21-2 on the season.
“I thought our team played really good, especially defensively,” Joy Gines said. “That’s what Tabiona is known for and we just let the offense come to us.”
While it was the defense that rose to the occasion Thursday, Fabrizio said he has a bunch of talented two-way players who do what’s asked of them.
“All year we’ve had a couple of girls that have accepted their assignment to be defenders,” Fabrizio said. “With that being said, Bella and Khloie hit some big shots for us.”
In addition to Martin, Clark finished with seven points and six rebounds for Whitehorse, while Begay chipped in with six points and Chee led the team with six rebounds.