4A girls state tourney: Cedar repeats as 4A champs in 61-44 win over Pine View

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OGDEN — The 4A girls state tournament wrapped up Saturday at the Dee Events Center in Ogden. Here’s at look at how Cedar won it all.

Saturday, 03:06pm

Final: Cedar defeats Pine View 61-44, repeats as 4A champs

OGDEN — Cedar High School’s pep band roared as the Reds jogged onto the floor to begin pre-game warmups. Everything around the Reds exuded confidence — from their robust pep band booming Chicago hits to fans in the crowd mingling with one another as if they were at a Saturday farmers market. Even the players were loose through warmups, filming a choreographed TikTok video as if it were a November exhibition, with no visible tension ahead of the biggest game of the year. That’s because the Reds entered the game having dropped contests this year only to Nevada powerhouse Bishop Gorman and to 6A Bingham by 3 points. So, when the Reds laid siege to Pine View 61-44 Saturday afternoon to claim their second straight 4A State Championship, it was no surprise. “Today will be the happiest day of my life,” Cedar head coach Cedar Nielsen said, “but it will also be the saddest because I’m going to miss all these girls.” Nielsen found a quiet spot to sit down when he emerged from the victorious locker room after addressing his team for the final time this year. Fighting through red eyes welled up with tears, he had difficulty putting the victory in perspective. He asked how many teams could say they had lost just two games in two years; how many teams had trailed by 20 points just once in three years; how many teams spent endless hours studying the game-plan packets he prepared for his team. It was forgivable for the Cedar coach who wanted to evade having to tie a bow on this team’s impact on the last two years of Utah high school basketball. “It’s a difficult thing to (move forward) when you have a Japrix Weaver who has been on varsity for all three years and you see her ACL tear and you see how hard she’s fought back,” Nielsen said, again unwilling to finish the thought. As if he did, it would have meant the season was officially over. “To see her get back to 100% and become the best player in the state. I don’t care what they say. No questions, end of conversation.” So, for this team, Nielsen was indifferent to pre-game TikToks. “When you’re prepared and when you’re confident ... there’s an old saying: Players play to the ability to which they’re coached. If they’re prepared to do things, why worry.” Pine View fought hard to stay in the game, but the Cedar attack was relentless and coming from every direction. This was a No. 7 Pine View team that had knocked off a No. 2 and No. 3 seed coming into the championship. Pineview led by 1 point with five minutes to play until halftime when Cedar blitzed the Panthers, starting with a press defense, prompting deflections and a tempo that favored the Reds. Cedar went on a 22-7 run to take a commanding lead into intermission. Every player who appeared on the floor for the Reds scored in the half, which would have required six defenders to slow down the scoring machine. First-year Pine View head coach Benjamin Luce’s had a fantastic season bringing the Panthers to the title game as a No. 7 seed. This was Luce’s first time at the 4A level after joining Pine View from Kanab. He ran into a very confident Cedar team who never believed they would lose. “This year we could tell nobody wanted us to win. Everyone was coming after us, but we just knew it was because we’re the best,” Japrix Weaver said. “We’re confident,” Samantha Johnston added. “We’re a little cocky, you know. We walked in here and knew we had it.” For Cedar, the game was won in the second quarter and the Reds never looked back, because really, this win was about so much more than just this game. It was about two years of dominance and a culmination of all the hard work the team had put into building the program. “We were gonna do bippity-boppity boop jump, then hold the trophy, so we’re gonna go finish that,” Mayci Torgerson added, back to discussing the TikTok. — Ty Bianucci, KSL.com

Friday, 07:14pm

Semifinal: Pine View holds off region rival Desert Hills for title berth

OGDEN — Ellie Wilson and Averi Papa each scored 13 points and Papa added 13 rebounds to help Pine View hold off Desert Hills 53-41 in a 4A state semifinal Friday at the Dee Events Center. Alex Olson added 8 points and six assists for the Panthers, who will face Cedar in Saturday’s state championship. Sa’de Turlington had 12 points, six rebounds and four steals to lead Desert Hills, which got 11 points apiece from Sydney Paisley and Kamryn Bliss.

Friday, 05:23pm

Semifinal: Laws, Weaver, Torgerson help Reds hold off Wolves

OGDEN — Logann Laws poured in 20 points with five rebounds, three assists and four steals, and Japrix Weaver added 19 points with three 3-pointers to help Cedar pull away from Green Canyon 68-61 on Friday at the Dee Events Center. Mayci Torgerson added 18 points and five rebounds for the Reds, who advanced to Saturday’s 4A state championship. Kennedy Eskelson had 22 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals to lead Green Canyon, and Shante Falslev added 16 points and six rebounds for the Wolves.

Thursday, 11:13pm

Quarterfinal: Desert Hills claims 3rd win this season over Snow Canyon

OGDEN — Desert Hills knew how to attack Snow Canyon, a team they met for the third time this season Thursday night. So after trading baskets at the outset, the Thunder offense started booming to the tune of a 56-45 victory. The Thunder banged home five triples and had their two best players in double figures by halftime. Six-footer Kamryn Bliss was a swiss army knife for Desert Hills, who, in addition to her scoring from inside and out, snatched six first-half rebounds to go along with a steal and an assist. It was a coming out party for Sydney Peisley, however, who scored 19 points by lighting it up from beyond the arc. She typically plays the post, a position she’s very good at, but Desert Hills unleashed her to shoot the deep ball against Snow Canyon, and it paid off in a big way as she shot a red-hot 5-of-6 from three. "No one really knew what she could do outside," Desert Hills head coach Ron Denos said. "I’ve been keeping her inside the whole year. I always knew we could come out with her here." The problem for the Thunder was, Snow Canyon wouldn’t quit. The Warriors were just as familiar with the Thunder as they were with them, and they were tired of losing. Guard Hallie Remund was a spark plug for her team, notching 6 points and grabbing four boards in the first half to keep her team within striking distance. The Warriors matched their opponents’ scoring in the third quarter and were within 4 points of tying the game, but it wasn’t meant to be in a game they never tied or took the lead. "Our girls got passive and played on their heels," Denos said. "They made some adjustments that we struggled with a little bit. I thought we lost a little bit of aggression as the game went on and I give them credit, they stuck in there and played hard." Once the fourth quarter started, however, Desert Hills returned to form and promptly went on a 10-0 run, with all five members of the team contributing scoring plays. Snow Canyon called timeout and made a final push, but it was too little, too late. The Thunder made their free throws and tied a bow on their final matchup with the Warriors this season. Desert Hills will now move on to face another region foe in Pine View at the 4A semifinal game Friday at 4:10 p.m. MST. The Panthers told reporters after the game they wanted to play the Thunder again. "I know they want us bad, they’re asking for us. That’s all they wanted," Denos said. "If they want us, then here we are. If someone wants to play us, well guess what, they’re just another team in our way. — Ty Bianucci, KSL.com

Thursday, 10:46pm

Quarterfinal: Pine View knocks off No. 2 Ridgeline

OGDEN — Entering this year’s tournament, Pine View didn’t have much state playoff experience. Before Thursday, the last time the Panthers played a quarterfinal game was in 2016 — but now that this new group of girls are here, they figured they’d stick around for a while. No. 7 Pine View upset No. 2 Ridgeline 52-51 in the 4A quarterfinals Thursday at Dee Events Center. “I am dang proud of these girls,” Pine View coach Benjamin Luce said. “Regardless of no experience for any of them before in a state tournament, they prepared their tails off. … That was as thorough of a team win that we’ve had this year.” Ellie Wilson had 13 points, Alexandra Olson had 11, while Averi Papa and Alyson Schmitt had 10 apiece for the Panthers. And it was Wilson that really gave Pine View belief. Early in the third quarter, Ridgeline had a 5-point lead and looked to be doing what No. 2 seeds do — taking care of business in the quarterfinals. Then Wilson hit back-to-back triples to give the Panthers the lead and suddenly everything seemed possible. “To have them see those shots go in in the second half made a lot of difference,” Luce said. “Other than a good attitude getting on the bus, the start of the second half, when we saw those two shots go in, we knew we could fight with them.” The inexperienced Panthers showed great patience in the fourth quarter to find Leilani Tonga inside for a bucket. Pine View kept doing that throughout the quarter, working the ball around and forcing Ridgeline to defend for long periods of time. And when crunch time came, the Panthers hit some free throws too. Olson was 6 of 6 from the free-throw line, calmly stepping to the line over and over in the final minutes as Ridgeline tried to mount a comeback. The Riverhawks did get the ball with under 30 seconds remaining down by just 3, but fumbled the ball out of bounds. And when Papa stepped to the line and made one free throw, it made the 3-pointer from Ridgeline’s Mikell Perry with 1.2 seconds left a moot point. “The last three minutes were huge,” Luce said. “Aly hits a 3, Lex hits those free throws.” And Pine View continues to get a bit more experienced. — Ryan Miller, KSL.com

Thursday, 08:05pm

Quarterfinal: Cedar cruises past Logan 65-39

OGDEN — No. 1 Cedar cruised past Logan in the quarterfinals, 65-39, with four Reds scoring in double figures. Cedar, which routinely bulldozes opponents by 30 to 40 points, found itself up by only 3 points in the third quarter before the Reds turned on the jets and outscored Logan 39-16 the rest of the way. The catalyst to the third quarter surge was delivered by Logann Laws, who scored 9 straight points to put the reins of the game firmly in the hands of the Reds. Cedar head coach Corry Nielsen said Laws looked around the huddle during a timeout and decided to take it upon herself to be the difference. Laws said she was just trying to be a good teammate. “We were in a funk there, we had some self doubt, which doesn’t happen very often; it’s only happened one other time this year,” Nielsen said. “At some point a player has to say, you know what, things aren’t going well, I have to change; I have to make a difference.” Cedar took turns scoring in bunches, as if the team decided before possessions who would get the open shots. Laws finished with 12 while Japrix Weaver notched a game-high 17 points. Samantha Johnston scored 14 points on 3-of-8 from 3-point land. “That’s who we are, we don’t have one star, we have five,” Nielsen said. “You might be able to stop one of us for a game, but we have three or four others who are going to keep coming at you.” Cedar jumped out to a commanding lead in the first quarter by pushing the ball in transition. The Reds scored 13 of their 23 first-half points in fast breaks and by capitalizing off turnovers. By game’s end, they had outscored the Grizzlies in that category by 28 points. Down 20-8, Logan called a timeout and responded by going on a 7-4 run to narrow the deficit to 8 points heading into halftime. Amber Kartchner dropped two 3-pointers for the Grizzlies, scoring 10 of her team’s points at the half. She finished the game with 16 points, going 6-for-18 from the field. Cedar, the defending champs, will advance to play Green Canyon in the semifinal game Friday at 2:30 p.m. MST. — Ty Bianucci, KSL.com

Thursday, 06:55pm

Quarterfinal: Green Canyon takes down Juan Diego in OT

OGDEN — Green Canyon’s Kennedy Eskelson made three standout plays in the fourth quarter. She hit a scooping layup at the beginning of the quarter to give the Wolves a 2-point lead. She drove inside and dished to Shante Falslev for a short floater as the clock was ticking down. And then she scooped in another layup to tie the game in the final minute. In a back-and-forth contest, the Wolves were making the winning plays on the offensive end. They just couldn't quite get the stops they needed. At least not until overtime. “Before overtime started, they just said leave no doubt,” Green Canyon coach Alexis Bird said. They did just that. The Wolves didn’t allow Juan Diego to score a single point in the extra session. Green Canyon used that dominant overtime period to beat the Soaring Eagle 61-54 in the 4A quarterfinals Thursday at Dee Events Center. “We only played six kids tonight,” Bird said. “They could have been gassed. But they used their heads and they left no doubt. They just played defense like they know how they had to play and they dug in deep. It was so incredible to watch.” Eskelson had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to lead Green Canyon. Jordyn Thompson had 13 points and Allee McKenna had 7 points and 14 rebounds for the Wolves in the win. The strong defensive overtime session was a change to what happened in the fourth. The offense was there for Green Canyon, but they struggled to defend. Actually, they struggled to defend without fouling. Juan Diego scored 11 points in the fourth — 8 of those came from the free-throw line. The Soaring Eagle drove inside time and time again on Green Canyon — and they were rewarded with trips to the charity stripe where they mostly took advantage. But their last two drives of regulation, they weren’t so lucky. With the score tied and the clock ticking under 10 seconds, Juan Diego’s Kamry Pan made a strong drive inside — Green Canyon forced a turnover out of bounds. Then, after Juan Diego’s Laulea Tavake stole the ensuing inbound pass giving the Soaring Eagle one last chance to win in regulation, Green Canyon’s defense once again stepped up and caused another turnover. And that set the tone for the overtime period. “They didn’t want to be done,” Bird said. “They want two more.” — Ryan Miller, KSL.com

4A girls state tourney: Cedar repeats as 4A champs in 61-44 win over Pine View

By KSL.com Sports | Updated - Feb. 29, 2020 at 3:08 p.m. | Posted - Feb. 27, 2020 at 7:03 p.m.

Final: Cedar defeats Pine View 61-44, repeats as 4A champs

Semifinal: Pine View holds off region rival Desert Hills for title berth

Semifinal: Laws, Weaver, Torgerson help Reds hold off Wolves

Quarterfinal: Desert Hills claims 3rd win this season over Snow Canyon

Quarterfinal: Pine View knocks off No. 2 Ridgeline

Quarterfinal: Cedar cruises past Logan 65-39

Quarterfinal: Green Canyon takes down Juan Diego in OT

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4A girls state tourney: Cedar repeats as 4A champs in 61-44 win over Pine View

By KSL.com Sports | Updated - Feb. 29, 2020 at 3:08 p.m. | Posted - Feb. 27, 2020 at 7:03 p.m.

Final: Cedar defeats Pine View 61-44, repeats as 4A champs

Semifinal: Pine View holds off region rival Desert Hills for title berth

Semifinal: Laws, Weaver, Torgerson help Reds hold off Wolves

Quarterfinal: Desert Hills claims 3rd win this season over Snow Canyon

Quarterfinal: Pine View knocks off No. 2 Ridgeline

Quarterfinal: Cedar cruises past Logan 65-39

Quarterfinal: Green Canyon takes down Juan Diego in OT

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Corner Canyon to play St. Frances Academy in a first-ever national championship game

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Locals in the NFL: East High alum Jaylen Warren is hurdling up Steelers' depth chart

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