Region 10 girls basketball: Snow Canyon, Desert Hills and Pine View all get wins as teams return to hardwood

ST. GEORGE — The new year’s slate of Region 10 high school girls basketball contests took place in St. George Tuesday night, and while it’s too early to name a favorite, a couple of high school teams are starting to emerge from the pack.

Snow Canyon remained unbeaten in Region 10 action with a dominant win at home over Hurricane. Meanwhile, Desert Hills also stayed undefeated in region play by beating Dixie on the road, and Pine View outlasted Cedar in a close contest at Pine View. 

Snow Canyon 60, Hurricane 36

Snow Canyon started fast and never looked back in the victory over Hurricane, getting big points from two players.

Snow Canyon against Hurricane in a Region 10 girls basketball game, St. George, Utah, Jan. 4, 2022 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News

Freshman Olivia Hamlin led all scorers in the contest with 21 points for Snow Canyon while senior Lainee Leavitt was right behind with 20 for the winners.

“Lainee is kind of a Swiss Army knife; she can do a little bit of everything for us,” Snow Canyon coach Dan Roden told St. George News. “She played great tonight, and rebounded well.”

“Olivia is just really good. She’s just a good player,” he added. “She can create her own shot, she can do all kinds of different stuff. She continues to get better and she’s only a freshman, so I’m really excited.”

About two minutes into the contest, Snow Canyon started using pressure defense to force turnovers.

On offense, the Warriors were able to create off the dribble, drive to the hoop and get open looks at the basket.

Meanwhile, Hurricane fell behind early and could not get back into the game because of missed shots.

“We could not hit the broadside of a barn, that’s all I can tell my team,” Hurricane coach Pepper Reddish said. “And that’s kind of been the last three games, honestly.”

Junior point guard Adri Gubler led the Tigers with 10 points in the loss. Lindy Erickson scored 8 and Addi Crandall contributed 5 points for Hurricane.

“We’re super young, but I think we’re doing fantastic,” Reddish said. “We just got to figure out how to get the ball in the hoop.” 

Snow Canyon led 17-9 after one quarter and upped its advantage to 35-17 at halftime. Leavitt scored 9 of her points in the second frame to post the big lead.

“We thought we could pressure them, we’ve got some pretty good quickness with our guards,” Roden said. “We flustered them a little bit, got them out of their system, made them take shots they didn’t want to take.”

Both teams missed shots in the second half and the pace slowed down. Hamlin scored a 3-pointer and then set up Joey Jensen for an easy bucket as the Warriors increased the lead to 20 at 52-32 to start the final quarter.

Hurricane fell to 6-6 overall after the defeat, including 1-1 in Region 10 play. Snow Canyon stayed unbeaten in the region at 2-0 and moved to 7-4 overall.

Snow Canyon hosts Desert Hills Thursday night at 7 p.m., while Hurricane is next at Crimson Cliffs, also Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Desert Hills 57, Dixie 39

Dixie plays against Desert Hills in a Region 10 girls basketball game, St. George, Utah, Jan. 4, 2022 | Photo by Jacqui Knighton, St. George News

Desert Hills got the strong road win behind 16 points from Julia Jacobsen. Alivia Cluff and Enid Vaifanua each contributed 12 points for the Thunder in the victory.

Desert Hills posted at 13-5 lead after the first quarter and didn’t let up on the gas, leading 29-14 at the half and 44-29 after three quarters of play.

Kealah Faumuina paced Dixie with 16 points. Emily Tauilili contributed 12 points for the Flyers, who fell to 3-6 overall, 0-1 in region after the loss. Dixie next plays at Cedar Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Desert Hills saw its record improve to 7-4 overall, 2-0 in region. The Thunder will next play at Snow Canyon Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Pine View 47, Cedar 42

At Pine View, Addie Topham hit a clutch 3-pointer with the score tied in the final minute of the game to give the Panthers the lead for good in an eventual 47-42 win over Cedar. 

Pine View jumped out to an 8-0 lead to start the game and led the entire first half, although Cedar did get within two points just before the second quarter ended with Pine View ahead 22-20.

Cedar at Pine View in Region 10 girls basketball action, St. George, Utah, Jan. 4, 2022 | Photo by Aaron Crane, St. George News / Cedar City News

Pine View’s Emma Jensen scored 12 of her game-high 22 points in the first quarter alone.

“We found Emma when we thought we had a mismatch and she did a good job finishing,” said Pine View head coach Ben Luce.

Cedar’s Haylee Campbell hit a 3-pointer with 5:12 left in the third period to give the Reds their first lead of the game, 25-24. The teams stayed close the rest of the quarter, which ended in a 30-30 tie.

The teams traded baskets throughout the fourth quarter, which saw tie scores at 32, 34, 36, and 38. It was 38-38 when Topham hit her go-ahead trey from the left wing with 50 seconds left.

“That was a huge shot for us when we needed it,” Luce said.

Cedar guard Braylee Peterson hit a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left to cut Pine View’s lead to three, but the Panthers added two more free throws to ice the game.

The Panthers ended up making 10-of-12 from the free throw line, while the Reds were 12-of-21.

Campbell led the way for Cedar with 12 points, while Annalyse Shimada added 10.

Pine View improved to 1-1 in Region 10 play with the win, while Cedar dropped to 0-2 with the loss. Cedar next hosts Dixie on Thursday night at 7 p.m., while Pine View has a bye.

– written by Jeff Richards

Region 10 girls basketball standings, as of Jan. 5

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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