Dixie, Snow Canyon begin season with home losses

Written by Darren Cole
November 22, 2017
Snow Canyon vs. Enterprise, Girls Basketball, St. George, UT, Nov. 21, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Two Region 9 teams began their seasons Tuesday night. Both teams employ rookie coaches who saw their teams lose in different ways. Snow Canyon blew a 13-point third-quarter lead to visiting Enterprise. Dixie showed its youth and inexperience by getting shoved around early by a good Beaver squad at home. Below are game summaries of Tuesday night’s action:

Enterprise 52, Snow Canyon 40

Enterprise high school utahThe Lady Warriors dominated the contest through the first 22 minutes. With just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter Snow Canyon held a 35-22 lead. But then starting point guard and Preseason All Region 9 guard Tylei Jensen picked up her fourth foul and had to take a seat next to head coach Ryan Rarick. Enterprise closed the third quarter with a 14-0 run. Rarick reinserted Jensen with 6:30 remaining in the game but her stay lasted just over a minute before she fouled out. The Warriors managed only two baskets the remainder of the game.

“Our backup point guard (Olivia Hinton) and our third best ball handler (Brielle Hoskins) are both injured,” Rarick said. “With Jensen in foul trouble we had to rely on some girls playing out of position. We still need to figure out how to play through those situations.”

Snow Canyon’s Melenaite Kata (35), Snow Canyon vs. Enterprise, Girls Basketball, St. George, UT, Nov. 21, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

To start the game it looked as though the Warriors were going to run away with the game. Jensen and Preslee Gates both nailed 3-pointers to give Snow Canyon the early 12-2 advantage midway through the first. Hallie Remund knocked down another trey to get the score to 17-7. Jessica Holt hit the Lady Wolves’ first 3-pointer to close the gap to 17-10 going into the second quarter.

Enterprise was able to close the gap to two with 3:20 remaining. Kaytlyn Miller got a steal and fast break and then Kindy Christensen got a basket on an out-of-bounds play to pull within 19-17. But Snow Canyon finished the half on a 7-0 run, starting with another trey from Jensen. Allie Parr’s free throws in the last minute gave the Warriors a 26-17 halftime lead.

Jensen started the second-half scoring with her third 3-pointer to move the lead back to double digits 29-19. Parr and Melenaite Kata both scored on inside moves to give the Warriors their biggest advantage leading to Lady Wolves’ run.

In the first half, Holt was held to just the three points she scored at the end of the first. She keyed Enterprise’s second-half comeback with 15 points. The 25-point swing came in only 5:42 of game clock.

“They made some adjustments to the offense we were running,” Rarick said. “We called timeouts to counter. But we were not sure if they were going to play zone or man defense. And we had little time to prepare our zone offense before today’s game.”

Individually for Enterprise, Ellie Shurtliff and Averie Staheli scored eight apiece. Ronnie Robinson scored seven. For Snow Canyon, Jensen led the team with 11 points and four steals. Remund scored 10. Natalie Parr had six points and eight rebounds. Kata had five points and five rebounds. Jensen and Natalie Gunn each had three assists.

The Lady Warriors will play again Nov. 30 when they host Juan Diego Catholic. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m.

Beaver 52, Dixie 28

The Lady Flyers took a beating over the first three quarters against Beaver. Beaver led 47-15 going into the fourth quarter. Dixie was able to almost double its score in the final quarter.

Individually for Dixie, Mel Alo led the team with nine points. Sina Schwalger had seven. Emily Lemke led the team with six rebounds.

“Beaver is a well-coached, athletic and good shooting team,” Dixie head coach Ryan Forsey said. “It was an opportunity for us to see where we are and where we can improve. We’re young and with a new coaching staff, new philosophy, new defense, new offense – basically everything new. It’s going to take awhile for the girls to get there, but we’re excited about the journey and looking forward to the continuing improvement. Mel Alo gave us a lift in the first quarter. And I thought Emily Lemke had a solid game for us in the post.”

Dixie will play again on Dec. 1 when the Flyers will host the Dixie Invitational. The Flyers will play Green Valley (Las Vegas) at 6:30 p.m.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, 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.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.