Sky View Girls Basketball sweeps visiting Skyline Eagles, wins all three matchups

SMITHFIELD—It was a complete effort Tuesday night in Smithfield as the varsity, junior varsity and sophomore Lady Bobcats chalked up wins against the visiting Skyline Eagles. The varsity squad, behind a game-high 17 points from point guard Nicole Hansen, edged out the bigger Skyline team, 58-49.

“[Skyline]’s a big team,” said Head Coach Paul Hansen. “They’re a tall team. They’ve got four or five girls bigger than anybody we’ve got.”

But size wasn’t enough to slow down the sharp-shooting Lady Bobcats. Shooting guard Taylor Rock added 11 points, while forward Dianne Washington contributed 10 and forward Amy Andrus pitched in nine points for the Lady Bobcats.

Sky View started off slowly, struggling to make shots in the first quarter while Skyline built a small lead by the end of the first eight minutes of play, 14-10.

“I think we were just nervous,” said Nicole Hansen of Sky View’s slow start.

The Lady Bobcats didn’t score until Hansen hit a three-point shot with five minutes left in the first quarter.

“We were really struggling there to get a basket,” said Coach Hansen. “We got the jitters out of the way in the first quarter.”

Starting with a lay-up from Andrus in the second period, the Lady Bobcats had a strong second quarter with 20 points, eight of which came from Washington. Sky View entered the locker room at half time with an eight point lead, 30-22.

In the third quarter, Sky View extended its lead. With five different Lady Bobcats scoring during the period, Sky View made it through 24 minutes of play with a comfortable lead, 43-31. However, Skyline wouldn’t go down without a fight.

“We have a lot of respect for Skyline,” said Coach Hansen. “You know what you’re going to get when you play a team like that. They’re hard-nosed.”

Skyline, behind strong play and 16 points from center Abbie Brickley, pulled within five points of Sky View. But the Lady Bobcats held them off, scoring seven points in the last two minutes.

“We had a couple of runs,” said Coach Hansen. “You could see that [Skyline was] panicking, and we are real good at going for the kill when someone’s panicking, and they panicked there twice and we took advantage of it.”

Nicole Hansen said she had no expectations to score as many points as she did.

“I was not expecting that at all,” she said. “I’ve just been working on getting shots off faster, and trying to get to the hole more.”

“I thought we played real well,” said Coach Hansen, with one exception: foul shots.

“We’re shooting free throws, first and foremost,” during practice this week, he said.

Sky View (1-0) travels to face Mountain View (1-0) on Dec. 5. Varsity will play at 3:30 p.m., while JV will play at 1:45 p.m. and sophomores at 12:00 p.m.

JV

The Sky View Girls’ JV squad outscored Skyline in the first three periods to post a solid win Tuesday night, 42-28.

“We’re pretty strong,” said Coach Wendy Liebes.

Sky View’s Linsey Walker had a team-high 11 points, while forward Cortney Ballard and shooting guard Shantell Spackman added nine points each.

Liebes added that, while the JV team played well, there was plenty to improve upon.

“Our focus this season is probably going to be mostly on our defense,” she said. “We’re a little slow, still; we need to work on reacting to our corners quicker. That will come with practice and conditioning.”

Skyline’s leading scorer was Sena Hughes, with 11 points.

Sophomores

Danica Hansen and Whitney Alvey contributed 10 points each, while Regina Ward pitched in eight to help the Sky View sophomore squad hold off Skyline, 34-26.

Skyline’s Ashley Aberton lead the Eagles with 10 points.

“[Our girls] played hard,” said Coach Grant Koford. “They’ve got a long way to go, but they’re coming together.”

The key to success, he said, is the fundamentals. “I think once we stick to the fundamentals we’ll be okay,” he said.

“We’re doing good,” said forward Whitney Alvey. “We have a lot of work to do, but we’ll get there. The season is coming along.”