Girls basketball: Hurricane, Cedar start season with win; Enterprise trips Dixie

Written by Darren Cole
November 29, 2016
Hurricane vs. Beaver, Girl's Basketball, St. George, Utah, Nov. 29, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Three Region 9 teams were in action Tuesday night. Hurricane and Cedar both got wins in their first games of the season. Dixie falls to 0-2 against Washington County rival Enterprise. Below are game summaries of each game:

Hurricane 47, Beaver 38

Coming out of halftime with a commanding 24-10 lead, the Lady Tigers saw it cut into significantly with a big run by visiting Beaver. After Beaver scored eight straight points in less than three minutes, Hurricane head coach Franci Homer called timeout.

hurricane-logo“I told them to settle down and move their feet,” she said. “We had two of our floor generals on the bench early in the second half with foul trouble. I knew we had to buckle down defensively to get to the fourth quarter.”

Both Kylee Rivers and Jayden Langford had picked up their third fouls in the first minute of the third quarter. The timeout was somewhat effective as Hurricane nearly matched the Lady Beavers 7-6 to close out the third and maintain a slim five-point advantage, 30-25.

In the fourth quarter, Rivers responded with 10 of her game-high 16 points. All but two of them came from the line as Beaver was forced to foul to try to get back into the game.

Hurricane's Jayden Langford (11), Hurricane vs. Beaver, Girl's Basketball, St. George, Utah, Nov. 29, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Hurricane’s Jayden Langford (11), Hurricane vs. Beaver, Girl’s Basketball, St. George, Utah, Nov. 29, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

“This year we have more ball handlers,” said Rivers. “Halli (Gubler), Jayden (Langford) and Madi (Hirschi) can all handle the ball. It is nice not to have all the pressure at the end to control the ball.”

Hurricane hit 15 of 22 free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

“Free throws have been an emphasis in our practices this year,” said Homer. “It paid off tonight. I hope it continues.”

“Last year we would have missed more than half of them,” said Rivers. “We allowed teams to get back into the game. This year hopefully we extend our lead when they send us to the line.”

It was the Tiger defense in the first half that gave them a huge advantage. After taking an 11-8 lead after the first quarter, Hurricane allowed the Lady Beavers only two points in the second stanza.

“Alexa Christensen came up big for us tonight,” said Homer. “She was tasked with guarding their best post player, Abbey Yardley. We only took her out of the game for brief moments and then got her right back in.”

“(Yardley) is a strong player,” said Christensen. “And she has good post moves. I worked hard to make the post entry passes difficult. I think she started to get frustrated when they were not throwing the ball into the post.”

Yardley was held to a single basket in the first half. She would finish with 11 points for the game to lead her team. For Hurricane, Gubler joined Rivers in double-figure scoring with 10 points. Hirschi and Langford finished with nine and six points, respectively. Lexy Lyons led the Tigers with eight rebounds.

Hurricane is 1-0 and will face three teams in three days beginning Thursday at the Desert Hills tournament. The Tigers will face Logan on Thursday night at 6 p.m. On Friday night, they play Juan Diego at 5:30 p.m. They will face Pleasant Grove Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

Cedar 51, Canyon View 26

The Lady Reds climbed to a big lead early. After one they led 14-3. At the half the lead had grown to 30-6. They did not let up in the third as the lead climbed to 46-11.

cedar-logo“It was a nice first game for our girls,” said Cedar head coach John Elison. “They came out playing tough and playing together. We broke out a huge lead early and ran with it. I am proud of the start and hopefully we keep progressing from here.”

Dream Weaver led all players with 15 points, four steals and three blocked shots. Carly Davis joined her in double figures with 10. Maisie Elison led the team with eight rebounds. Davis and Emily Pearson both pulled down seven rebounds. Lindsey Robinson and Japrix Weaver each had three assists.

Cedar starts the season 1-0 and will travel to Springville on Friday night. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Enterprise 50, Dixie 36

After an even first quarter 13-13, Enterprise broke out in the second quarter to take a 28-21 lead, then slowly padded the lead over the next two quarters.

dixie-logo“It was a rough game for us tonight,” said Dixie head coach Jaime Araiza. “Our offense was not clicking.”

Kelsea Barker led Dixie with 12 points. Sina Schwalger joined her in double-figure scoring with 10 points. Grace Killian scored nine. Joslyn Bundy and Macee McAllister each had four rebounds.

Dixie falls to 0-2. The Lady Flyers will now host several teams in the Dixie Warm-up Classic. They will play Southeast Career Tech out of Las Vegas on Friday night at 7:30. They have two games on Saturday. They will play Green Valley out of Henderson, Nev., at 12:30 p.m. They will play Century High School out of Pocatello, Idaho, at 5 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL
Desert Hills 60, Canyon View 49

In a matchup of two state tournament teams from last season, the Thunder used a balanced scoring attack to pull away from the Falcons.

desert-hills-logoJake Mathews led the way with 13 points and Tanner Turley had 12, but the duo had plenty of help. Seven players scored at least five points in the Desert Hills victory, including Cam Clayton with 9, Braxton Porter with 8, and three players with 5 each in Isaac Olivas. Sam Kunzler and Tucker Peterson.

The Thunder used a three-point play by Porter and a 3-pointer by Clayton to forge a 16-12 lead early in the second quarter. Kunzler hit a 3-pointer late in the first half to make it 28-21.

The Falcons got within 28-26 early in the second half after a basket by Porter Miller, but D-Hills responded with a 9-2 run to push the lead to 37-28, sparked by three-point play by Mathews. Canyon View couldn’t get closer than five the rest of the way.

Joey Lambeth led the Falcons with 18 points. Porter had 10 rebounds to lead DH, which goes to the 3A Preview in Richfeld this weekend.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darren Cole recently returned to sportswriting after a 20-plus year hiatus. While pursuing other studies, he developed an early passion for sports writing as a senior writer and sports editor for the Ricks College Scroll in 1988-89. Darren has spent the last 20 years writing legal memorandi and appellate briefs. In addition to his legal career, he has also taught legal and criminal justice courses at the university level for nine years as an adjunct professor. Darren is married to wife Lisa, has two sons and is a confessed sports junkie.

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