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OREM — Mountain View came into the Class 4A girls basketball state tournament as a 19-2 team with star Tahlia White, who averaged 23.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
To call the Bruins the tournament favorite would not be an understatement.
Somebody forgot to tell Hurricane.
Jayden Langford had 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, and the Tigers stunned top-rated Mountain View 53-44 Thursday evening at Utah Valley University.
Hailey Homer and Kylee Stevens added nine points apiece for Hurricane (15-9), who used a 21-12 second-quarter spurt to take a 29-24 advantage at halftime and held on despite a game-high 24 points and nine rebounds from White.
“White is phenomenal,” Hurricane coach Franci Homer said. “And (Skye Lindsay) was phenomenal in that first half. We were struggling to stop her. But our last three practices have been about preparing for this game, and I think it paid off.”
White had 12 points in the first half, but the Bruins were out-rebounded 22-12 in falling behind 29-24 at the break.
The senior wing pulled Mountain View within one twice in the final two minutes of the half. But Langford’s jumper with 33 seconds left gave the Tigers the five-point separation at the break.
“That was awesome,” Homer said. “Who would’ve thought that we would’ve had the lead when we went in? But it was awesome.”
Nobody needed to tell Homer how good White or the Bruins were, either; the coach admitted to studying Mountain View’s habits for three-straight days in preparing for Thursday’s quarterfinal after the Region 9 second-seed buried Green Canyon 62-53 in the first round Feb. 23.
Final | Hurricane 53, Mountain View 44. Tigers pull off the stunner of the tournament, a rare bright spot for Region 9 in the 4A quarterfinals. pic.twitter.com/Xuf3sxAVVA
— Sean Walker (@DSeanKSL) March 2, 2018
“We did a lot of studying over the last couple of days,” Homer said. “We tried to really go over their offense and their out-of-bounds plays so that the girls would know what to expect.”
White scored Mountain View’s first two buckets of the third quarter, but the Bruins didn’t tie the game until the star’s 3-pointer with 1:36 remaining en route to a 35-35 stalemate to start the fourth quarter.
But Hurricane held White off the scoreboard for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, and used a 7-0 run to take a 44-39 advantage with 3:49 remaining before holding on.
The Tigers advanced to face upstart Lehi, which rebounded from a 1-19 season a year ago to advance to its first state semifinal since 2006.
The winner will play for the 4A state title at 11 a.m. MST Saturday at Utah Valley.
