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Draper • Sky View's girls' basketball team saw two successful debuts Tuesday at the 16th annual Utah Hall of Fame Classic at Juan Diego High School.
The Bobcats, last year's Class 4A state championship, debuted in Class 5A by defeating defending 5A state champion Brighton 53-50 in an entertaining opener to give new head coach Vanessa Hall her first victory.
It took the Bobcats more than four minutes to notch their first basket. It also had to counter a 31-point effort by Brighton star Dani Barton.
But once they started hitting baskets, the Bobcats' aggressive style proved too much for the Bengals.
"I've got to take a deep breath," said Hall after Brighton's rally attempt fell short. "It took us a minute to get into the game. But once we got started, we played our game. We like to attack. We like to run. And our defense helps out our offense."
After falling behind 10-2, a 3-pointer by junior Kaylee Carlsen seemed to jumpstart the Bobcats. Senior Jamie Nielson scored nine of her 11 points in the second quarter as Sky View opened up a 25-21 halftime lead.
Brighton got within one point several times, including 51-50 with 50.8 seconds left on a 3-pointer by sophomore Aiana Miller. But Carlsen hit two big free throws — her sixth in the fourth quarter — with 24.5 seconds to go and the Bengals never got off a good shot after that.
"Those were important," said Carlsen about her free throws. "We work hard on our free throws in practice. You win games when you put free throws in."
Carlsen finished with 20 points to lead her team in scoring.
Barton, also a junior, showed why she is one of the state's top athletes. She did a little bit of everything, including play the post, score and rebound from inside, bring the ball down the court as a guard and hit a three-pointer.
"Holy, moly she is good," said Hall after watching Barton. "She hurts you inside and rebounds like crazy. It was good for the girls to compete against a girl like that."
The classic is part of a number of early games sponsored as fundraisers by the Utah Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, the state's high school athletic directors.
Twitter @tribpreps.com • Defending 4A champion Sky View makes a big splash in its 5A debut by knocking off defending 5A state champions Brighton.
• Sky View's Kaylee Carlsen scores 20 points and hits some big free throws down the stretch in the Utah Hall of Fame Classic.
• Brighton star junior Dani Barton begins her season with 31 points in a losing effort.