Twin killing: Mills sisters, Juan Diego send DH girls packing at 3A Tourney

Written by Andy Griffin
February 26, 2015
Desert Hills vs. Juan Diego, 3A State Basketball Tournament, Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 26, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

WEST VALLEY CITY – Juan Diego has the ultra-talented Mills sisters, Dominique and Monique. Oh, and the rest of the team isn’t bad either.

juan-diego-smDesert-Hills-smUsing a 24-1 run that spanned eight minutes of game time in the first and second quarters, the Soaring Eagle ensured that there would be a new champion in 2015, eliminating defending-champion Desert Hills 73-58, seemingly capturing the game almost before the teams had finished warming up.

Kenzie Done with a layup, Juan Diego vs. Desert Hills, 3A State Basketball Tournament, Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 26, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Kenzie Done with a layup, Juan Diego vs. Desert Hills, 3A State Basketball Tournament, Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 26, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

The Lady Thunder hung tight for the first five minutes, trailing just 12-11 with 3:11 to go in the first. But turnovers and missed shots doomed DH, which saw Juan Diego expand the lead to 34-12 with 3:15 to go until halftime.

A mini run by D-Hills pulled the Thunder to within 38-20 at halftime, but the game was still quite in hand. In fact, every time Desert Hills made any kind of move, one of the Mills sisters was there with the answer.

Monique had 17 in the first half and Dominique started the third quarter by scoring five quick points, including a 3-pointer.

To the Thunder’s credit, they came out in the second half and played hard, even cutting the deficit under 15 a couple of times (including 68-56 in the final minute of the game). Ashley Beckstrand proved she belonged on the court with the Mills sisters, scoring 30 points. Kenzie Done also played well. Both players will be back next season for DHHS.

“I’m extremely proud of the way the girls battled back and never gave up,” DH coach Ron Denos said. “Becoming a champion involves having heart like these girls did today. They didn’t roll over. We even got it down to 12 late in the game, but didn’t quite have enough.”

But clearly the Soaring Eagle pressure was too much for DH, which had 19 turnovers just at halftime. By the end of the game, that number had swollen to 32.

Juan Diego, 23-0, advances to the state semifinals and will play at 4:10 Friday afternoon. Monique Mills finished with a game-high 32 points, while Dominique had 21.

Desert Hills ends the season with a 15-8 record. The Thunder return all five starters from this year’s second-place Region 9 team.

3A Girls Basketball Championship bracket

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

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