Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — The names changed over for a Lone Peak girls' basketball team with just two seniors on its roster, save perhaps for Kennedy Woolston, who only feels like a sixth-year senior in her junior campaign with the Knights.
But the results remained the same for the three-time reigning 6A champions.
Woolston had 12 points to go with four rebounds, eight assists and five steals, and Lone Peak shot 47% from the field with seven 3-pointers to pull past Davis 66-48 in a 6A state semifinal Wednesday morning at the Huntsman Center.
Maddie Pope and Tati Harness scored 12 points apiece for the Knights (19-7), who got 11 points and five rebounds from Zuri Nordstrom.
T'mea Eteuati had 13 points and five rebounds to lead Davis, Kate Willard scored 12, and Mari Nichols supplied 10 points for the Darts.
Davis (17-7) jumped out to a 5-1 start, but Lone Peak rallied to lead by as much as 17-11 advantage after back-to-back 3-pointers by Pope and Charli Warner, a freshman who finished with 9 points on 4-of-8 shooting with a pair of assists, in the first quarter.
Nordstrom stretched the lead to 22-13 with another triple with less than two minutes left in the frame en route to a 25-16 advantage after the first quarter.
The Darts tried to chip into the lead, like Chloe Peery's jumper midway through the second quarter that cut their deficit to 32-25. But Nordstrom had 11 points before the break, and the Knights scored 9 points in transition including Woolston's late-half bucket to push Lone Peak to the 40-33 halftime advantage.
"Getting the stops that we did helped us to get out in transition and set up our offense," Lone Peak coach Nancy Warner said. "Any one of our players on the floor are capable shooters and capable penetrators, and I think they found each other really well."
The Knights turned to their defense to secure a fourth straight berth in the state title game, out-pacing Davis 20-6 in the third quarter en route to a 60-39 advantage that was never surmounted.
When seventh-seeded Lone Peak — with its six freshmen and two sophomores — struggled to find chemistry or coalesce in parts of the season, the young squad leaned on a developing identity: defense.
"The theme of this team is new players," Warner said. "Our team has to find their own identity, and that's been a challenge all season.
"I think that they've found ways to do that, and we preach defense. If there's a way to figure things out, it's been on the defensive side of things. It has been an emphasis, and it has been something we continue to work on all the time."
Lone Peak will face top-seeded Copper Hills in Thursday's 6A championship at 5 p.m. MST.
Copper Hills survives initial blow from Bingham for title game return
Bingham punched first, but top-seeded Copper Hills landed the final blow.
Skylie Barker had 17 points and eight rebounds, and Aspen Fraser added 16 points, five boards and two assists to help the Grizzlies rally from a double-digit deficit to survive the Miners 50-38 in Thursday's second 6A semifinal at the Huntsman Center.
Ayla Marston had 10 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a steal for Copper HIlls (21-5), which held Bingham to single-digit scoring in the final three quarters to pull away for the win.
Addy Horsley had 17 points to lead the Miners (18-8), and Iman Finau added 10 points and four rebounds.
Horsley scored 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting with two steals as Bingham punched first, leading by as much as 10-0 en route to a 24-20 halftime advantage.
The Miners held the Grizzlies to 38.9% shooting, outscoring the top seeds 16-4 in the paint for the early advantage.
But Copper Hills never showed any panic.
"They were making some tough shots early on that went in, and we just stayed the course," Copper Hills coach Jake Timpson said. "They're a really good team, and we knew they were going to come out and try to jump us early. And then it was just about maintaining composure, and doing the same things that were getting us open shots.
"Eventually, we started getting open looks, hitting threes and before you know it, we were back in the game."
Copper Hills used a 13-8 third-quarter push to inch in front, 33-32. A pair of buckets to start the fourth quarter by Ella Creer and Barker stretched the Grizzlies' lead to 37-32 midway through the final frame, and Copper Hills secured a second straight appearance in the championship game.
"We got stops when we needed to, and we got rebounds," Timpson said of the fourth quarter.
Photos
Show All 8 Photos
