TAYLORSVILLE—Following Sky View High School’s victory over Snow Canyon on Thursday, Lady Bobcat coach Paul Hansen forecasted a potential semifinal matchup against Springville in the Girls 4A State Basketball Tournament at Salt Lake Community College by calling Red Devils’ star Lexi Eaton “a handful.” He used the same description after their matchup on Friday, which saw Springville end Sky View’s season in a hard-fought 53-49 victory.

With an average of over 28 points per game, everybody knew that Springville’s offense would go through Eaton. The Lady Bobcats did a commendable job early in containing her, but they seemed to contain themselves as well, as the Red Devils led 12-7 after one.

The mighty struggles on offense continued in the second quarter, as Sky View’s own star, Dannika Webb, couldn’t connect on a single field goal. Springville wasn’t exactly shooting the lights out, but Eaton and Mackenzie Nielson kept them ahead, as the Red Devils went on an 8-0 run in the first five minutes of the quarter to stretch the lead to 13, 20-7. Hansen simply said “no offense at all” in describing his squad’s performance in the first half. A 3-pointer from Sky View’s Whitney Alvey with 3:11 to play stopped the bleeding, but Springville went on another big run, this one 8-2, to propel the Red Devils into the break with a 28-12 advantage. In that first half, the Lady Bobcats were able to convert just 5 of their 24 field goal attempts.

When the teams came out of the locker room to start the third quarter, the arena turned into a lion’s den as the intensity increased. Tempers flared two minutes in as Nielson welcomed a cut to her right eye with no whistle reaction from the referees. Eaton even picked up a technical foul during the mayhem at the 5:48 mark. As technical violations often do, this one seemed to wake up Sky View’s offense, as they were able to shrink the lead to single digits, 38-29, at the end of the third. In regards to his group’s resurgence in the second half, Hansen said, “We were as pleased as we could be.”

The momentum carried into the final eight-minute segment, as Alvey made a layup on Sky View’s first possession. A Springville foul seconds later gave the Lady Bobcats an opportunity to cut the lead to as little as four, but in a precursor to the rest of the contest, Eaton stopped the Sky View momentum via the charity stripe, knocking down two with 7:08 remaining. The Lady Bobcats had multiple opportunities to get over the hump, but each was halted by Eaton at the line. In total, she sank 14 of 20 foul shots en route to a 30-point performance. Maddie Day gave Sky View one last glimmer of hope with 51 seconds to go, cutting the lead to four. Eaton responded though, putting the game out of reach at the line. Fittingly, with the score 53-46, Webb hoisted up a shot at the buzzer from halfcourt that made the final score 53-49. She finished with 12, Day had 14 and 10 rebounds.

Like the real animal, Hansen was proud of his team’s “scratching, digging, and clawing on until the end…I like this team,” he said. Finishing the season with a 16-9 record, Hansen commended his team, particularly seniors Linsey Walker, Maury Beorchia, Cortney Ballard, Sydnee Johnson and Jessica Duffin. In all, Hansen commented that the Lady Bobcats ended the season as successfully as he envisioned they would.