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West Valley City • Whether the main venue for the Class 3A girls' basketball tournament was at Southern Utah University (2014), Weber State University (2013), or Dixie State (2012), the Carbon girls' basketball team was barely around long enough to remember where the restroom was.
Thanks to a 50-48 overtime victory on Thursday, the Dinos will have a much firmer knowledge of the layout at the Maverik Center.
They knocked off Stansbury in the quarterfinals and will face Morgan on Friday in the semis.
"We had the goal to get to the final four, so this totally pumped us up," said Carbon junior Jordan Scoggins after the win. "We haven't made it this far in four years."
That means none of the current Dinos have gone this far, and it was Scoggins who led the way as she scored 28 points.
Stansbury (15-8) took a 48-46 lead in the overtime period before Scoggins tied the game at the 39 second mark with a pair of free throws.
With nine seconds remaining, and the Stallions hoping for a shot to end it all, Scoggins stole the ball from Stansbury. It was Scoggins' sixth theft of the game and she was immediately fouled.
After making two more free throws, and seeing a last-second try by Stansbury's Rachel Prescott miss, Carbon (17-7) could celebrate its entry into the semifinal round.
"We've always lost the first round when we get here, so to get to the next round is really amazing," Scoggins said.
"We knew we were going to be in a dogfight," Carbon coach Ted Bianco said. "Our girls have been in this situation all year long and they know how to respond to it. I wasn't real nervous about it, but I was a little angry how we were timid and a little bit scared.
"But we got through that later on in the first quarter," Bianco added.
Stansbury, in fact, got off to a quick start as the Stallions raced out to a 12-5 lead. But it didn't take long before the Dinos started to claw back into the contest.
An 8-0 run in the second quarter put Carbon up 21-18 and that was the real start of the back-and-forth nature that would prevail for the rest of the game.
Carbon found itself in dire straits at the end of regulation, trailing 42-39 in the last minute. Stansbury, which was led by 16 points from Prescott, got the three-point margin on a pair of Amber Spaulding free throws with 47 seconds remaining.
But the Dinos got one back on a free throw by Taylor Oliver 10 seconds later and, with 31 seconds on the clock, Scoggins hit a shot to tie at 42-42.
From that point, it was all about the defense.
"What we wanted to do was create as much havoc as possible on the defensive side of the floor and not foul," Bianco said. "We knew we could play good enough defense without reaching in and making a crazy foul."
Morgan (17-8) will provide the opposition to Carbon on Friday in a 2:30 p.m. semifinal game, as the Trojans outlasted Cedar (19-4) by a 50-43 count. Brooklyn Hurlbut and Jessica Carter had 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the victors while Cedar's only double-figure scorer was Javlyn Weaver with 10.
Juan Diego (23-0), meanwhile, stayed perfect by handling defending state champ Desert Hills (15-8). The Soaring Eagle got 30 points from Monique Mills and 21 from twin sister Domonique in a 73-58 victory against the Thunder.
Ashley Beckstrand score 30 for Desert Hills.
At 4:10 p.m. Friday, Juan Diego will tangle with the winner of the late Bear River/Juab contest.