High school girls basketball: West prevails in heavyweight semi with Bountiful, will face No. 1 Pleasant Grove in 5A championship

Here’s a recap of Thursday’s 5A semifinals at the University of Utah, with No. 3 seed and No. 1 seed Pleasant Grove winning to advance to Friday’s state championship.

Pleasant Grove 44, Fremont 33

With a new coach and some notable transfers, expectations were certainly high for Pleasant Grove girls basketball this season, a program that won only nine games last year.

Despite that 5A preseason No. 3 ranking, not in coach Angela Villa’s wildest imaginations could she have envisioned what was about to unfold.

Spurred on by a dominant defensive performance in the 5A semifinals, Pleasant Grove now sits one victory away from a perfect season and its first state championship in school history.

The Vikings held Fremont to just 24% shooting and enjoyed a 37-28 rebounding advantage in marching to the 44-33 win in the semis at the University of Utah on Thursday afternoon.

“It would be huge. And to do it with a perfect — I can’t even say that. I can’t even finish the sentence. To do it with a perfect record — I don’t think anybody thought that was possible. I sure didn’t,” said Villa, who was an assistant coach at Provo last year.

Pleasant Grove will face No. 3 seed West in the 5A championship at 1 p.m.

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It will be school’s first championship game appearance since losing to Syracuse 62-49 back in 2010.

“When we accomplish it, it’ll be the celebration of the century down in Pleasant Grove. But again, come in focused, do the little things, battle on defense, and then celebrate after,” said Villa.

Pleasant Grove needed to be dominant defensively against Fremont, as its offense couldn’t get much going either with 17 turnovers and just 34% shooting. It never trailed, though, pushing the lead to 29-15 by halftime and then withstanding a Fremont push in the third quarter.

Janiece Sikander led the way for Pleasant Grove with 13 points, with Tabi Clark and Sutton Villa chipping in with 10 each.

Zuri Nordstrom had a strong game herself with nine points and four assists.

“Zuri has been a huge asset to have on this team. She was a gift and a blessing. A lot of people don’t realize how skilled she is. Yes, she’s a bruiser (but the) kindest girl, I hope people understand that. She looks mean, but she is such a sweetheart. But she’s a force,” said coach Villa.

Fremont was led by Abby Christensen, who finished with 14 points, but Villa thought Cash Connors did a great job defensively in limiting her to 5 of 13 shooting.

“I could not have asked for more from that kid. I’m so proud of her,” said Villa.

Trailing 29-15 at the half, Fremont closed to 33-24 by the end of the third quarter and cut the lead to 40-32 with six minutes remaining in the game. It didn’t make a field goal the rest of the way against Pleasant Grove’s stingy defense.

West 52, Bountiful 48

On a day with eight semifinal games at the University of Utah, Thursday morning’s 5A opener between No. 2 Bountiful and No. 3 West unfolded like the main event.

Not only was it a rematch of last year’s title game, but two of the best players in the state — Bountiful’s Milika Satuala and West’s Kylee Falatea — both absolutely balled out on the biggest stage.

Satuala was a beast, scoring a game-high 32 points, and she played the fourth quarter and overtime with steri-strips over her left eye to close a big gash suffered late in the third quarter — a gash that will inevitably require stitches.

Falatea, meanwhile, narrowly missed a triple-double with 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, and it was her poise and leadership that ultimately helped West push through and dethrone 3-time state champion Bountiful, 52-48.

“We leaned on our leader and she gave us the confidence we needed to get the ball to the people that we needed to get it to. We’re just proud of these guys, we just found a way against a really good Bountiful team,” said West coach Olosaa Solovi.

West led the entire game except for one brief moment with 2:56 left in the fourth quarter when Charlotte Johnson hit two free throws giving the Redhawks the 47-45 lead.

Laite Latu tied it on West’s ensuring possessions on a layup for two of her 15 points, all on cool finishes at the rim as the Panthers had a 34-20 scoring edge in the paint.

In overtime, she scored on a rebound putback and a layup, but it was West’s defense that was the story in the final four minutes as it held Bountiful to one free throw.

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Solovi said he was proud of his players for their approach heading into overtime.

“I told them, ‘go win this thing. We’ve got four minutes. Don’t play tentative, don’t play soft. You’re going to be disappointed if you don’t just go after it,’” said Solovi.

With the win, West advances to its second straight state championship game, and will face top-seed Pleasant Grove at 1 p.m. on Friday.

“This is so big for us. I mean, this is a team we lost to in the championship last year, so this is great for us. I mean, we got another chance at a championship this year and that’s all we want,” said Falatea.

Tiana Fa had a huge game as well for West, scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

There’s no question that Oregon-commit Falatea is the engine on both ends of the floor for the 24-1 Panthers.

“She’s the face of West basketball,” said Solovi, who coached her older sisters at East, but had no idea if the younger Falatea would also want to play for him when he took over as head coach her freshman year.

“She could have gone anywhere. But she came here and said she wanted to make West basketball a name and something our community could be proud of. To see her take this program over the last four years, whatever happens tomorrow, in my opinion, she’s one of the best players I’ve ever been around and coached and watched,” said Solovi.

She was instrumental in helping West jump out fast, building a 12-6 by the end of the first quarter and then 30-14 at the half.

Despite the big cushion, Solovi told his players to expect a Bountiful run in the third quarter.

Sure enough, with Satuala spearheading the attack, the Redhawks closed to 38-32 by the end of the quarter. Satuala scored 11 of her team’s 14 points before she had to leave with 2:31 left in the third after taking a shoulder to the face and dripped pools of blood on the floor.

Even Solovi was impressed with her shot making.

“She’s so amazing to watch. I was a fan during that game watching her hit some amazing shots. There wasn’t an easy shot she hit at all. Like a hand in her face, two people in her face, get to the bucket, get hurt, come back. Like, like she was amazing to watch,” said Solovi.

With a bandaged eye, Satuala was back on the floor to start the fourth quarter, and it was her 3-pointer at the four-minute mark that tied the game 45-45. She didn’t score again, though, as West managed to deny her the ball on key possessions in the final two minutes of regulation and in overtime.

“They got a lot of momentum going for a second and all we had to do was kill their momentum and get our own. So we just started that by moving the ball, staying composed, and finishing our buckets,” said Falatea, who add that it was “the funnest game we’ve played all year.”

West will certainly be the underdog in Friday’s championship against undefeated Pleasant Grove, but they’ll have the experience of playing in last year’s championship and Solovi will remind them to play loose and relax like they did in beating Bountiful.