1A GIRLS: Pahranagat Valley clears final hurdle

Nothing was going to prevent the Pahranagat Valley girls basketball team from winning the Class 1A state championship Saturday.
Not an inspired effort from Lund’s Keisha Stewart or even pop singer Katy Perry.

The Panthers jumped to a big first-quarter lead, then held off a late charge by Lund to capture a 52-42 victory at the Orleans Arena.

The state title is the first for Pahranagat Valley (22-9) since 2006, when the Panthers won the last of their five consecutive crowns.

“You don’t realize what this means until you lose it and then get it back,” Pahranagat Valley coach Amy Huntsman said. “It was nice to finish.”

Senior guard Mary Higbee led the Panthers with 16 points despite shooting 3-for-15 from the field. Higbee even made two free throws in the first quarter with Perry’s hit song “Hot N Cold” blasting over the arena’s public address system.

“I did notice it. I kind of just laughed,” Higbee said. “I was on varsity my freshman year, but I didn’t play. So every year I’ve been working for it, and senior year I finally got to get a win.”

Stewart led the Mustangs (20-4) with 29 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter when Lund got within 47-40. But Lund never recovered from a rough shooting effort in the first half.

The Mustangs made one of their first 11 shots in falling behind 18-3. By halftime, Lund was 3 of 23 from the field and had committed 10 turnovers.

“We got in foul trouble, and we weren’t ready to play at the start,” said Lund coach Shane Boren, whose team hit 28.6 percent (14 of 49) of its shots overall.

Sophomore Dakota Day had 11 points and 14 rebounds for Pahranagat Valley, and freshman Halie Lewis finished with eight points and five rebounds.

“It’s nice because when I couldn’t hit my shot, everyone else on the team stepped up and hit them for me,” Higbee said.

After trailing 26-14 at halftime, Lund started to chip at the Panthers’ lead in the third quarter. Stewart’s 17-foot jumper with two minutes left in the period made the score 33-25, but Higbee hit a 3-pointer, then drove the lane to set up junior Nikki Schofield for an easy basket and a 41-25 lead after three quarters.

“I told them all year long when we attack the basket instead of shooting from the perimeter good things happen,” Huntsman said. “That’s what Mary did. That’s senior leadership.”