Kaysville » After an up and down preseason, this was exactly what Davis needed.
Throughout the game, Brighton stayed with the Darts, never letting them go up by more than a few baskets.
But, with the game tied and about a minute remaining, Davis stepped up its defense -- something the Darts had been working on for the past few weeks -- and sealed a 55-52 win over the Bengals on Tuesday.
"We've been working on defensive rotations and communicating," Davis coach Amy Wright said. "We took care of the ball, we got the shots we wanted to take and we made the right decisions to put ourselves in the driver's seat in the last minute."
And it may have all started because of Ali Blake's big defensive play. With about 30 seconds remaining, she stole the ball and took off for a fast break. She had teammate Betsy McCausland running alongside her but she went up for the lay-up herself. The basket was good to give the Darts the lead with 21.8 seconds left.
Brighton wasn't able to get off a good shot after that.
"I saw [Betsy] but I didn't want to risk it," said Blake, who led Davis with 16 points. "This win shows us we can be a clutch team. Our defense is getting better. We kind of figured it out."
Besides a big second quarter, when the Bengals scored 27 points, the Darts were able to hold Brighton to single-digit scoring for the other three quarters.
In the second, both teams excelled at breaking the opponents' press defense. Brighton's Shelbi Everett was especially tough to stop in the first half. She finished with 15 points. But, she also got help from Kimberly Ringwood and Katie Tominaga, who had 13 and 14 points, respectively.
Tominaga's biggest points came on a three-pointer with 1:28 to go that gave the Bengals the first lead of the game.
"We got off to a bad start but we came from behind," said Brighton coach Jim Gresh. "I was happy with that but we have to play better man-to-man defense. We have some fine-tuning to do."
Meanwhile, the Darts are happy with where they are at this point in the season.
"We realize we can keep up with anybody," Blake said. "The most important thing about the preseason is to know our potential."
-- Three players scored in double figures for Brighton.
-- Ali Blake led Davis with 16 points.
-- It was a balanced effort by the Darts as eight players scored.
