Close calls: T-Wolves rally for first tourney win

OREM — Timpanogos High's first-ever girls basketball tournament win came much tougher than the Timberwolves expected.

Not that they entered Tuesday's first-round 5A game overlooking the Kearns Cougars. But with a 17-point halftime lead, the T-Wolves didn't think they'd need a fourth-quarter rally just to sneak out of the McKay Events Center at Utah Valley State College with a 52-49 victory.

"We kind of feel like that monkey's off our back now, and now we can just go out and play ball," Timpanogos coach Liz Darger said of the school's ice-breaking playoff win.

Timpanogos' 15-0 run to end the first half looked like it was going to vault the T-Wolves to an easy win. But when the Cougars came out in the third quarter with a tenacious full-court press that caused repeated turnovers and then cashed in by drilling some big treys, the game tightened in a hurry. Kearns matched Timpanogos with a 15-0 run of its own to start the second half which quickly turned a 17-point game into a back-and-forth contest.

"They hit a couple of threes that gave them some momentum, and I think that kind of scared us a little bit," Darger said.

The T-Wolves have struggled all year with consistency and playing well for four straight quarters. But once they realized they had a battle on their hands, they went back to the bread and butter that's worked for them all year long.

"We needed to get back into our game," Darger said. "It needed to be our rhythm and our pace."

That meant getting the ball back into the hands of Megan Bishop and Cali Nelson, the two who vaulted the T-Wolves to the big first-half lead. Nelson matched Kearns' first-half scoring with 12 points and Bishop scored 10 of her 17 in the first half. Bishop stopped Timpanogos' leaking with five straight points in the third, and Nelson's huge baskets and free throws down the stretch where the main difference.

After Kearns had taken a 37-36 early in the fourth, Nelson scored two quick baskets on an offensive rebound and a steal to put the T-Wolves back ahead for good. She then sealed the game with two buckets and two free throws in the final 90 seconds, finishing with a 24 points.

"She changes the game," Darger said of Nelson. "Even when she's not scoring in bunches, like she was tonight, she changes the game."

Rochelle Tialevea of Kearns, who also scored 24 points, carried the Cougars in the first half. When she got some second-half help from Brooke Larsen and Ana Satini, the Cougars looked poised to shock the T-Wolves.

Satini scored five quick points in Kearns' 15-0 run and Larsen scored 15 of her 16 points in the final two quarters.

The statistic that killed the Cougars, however, was foul shooting. Kearns made only three of 10, and missed from five free throws in the fourth quarter when every possession was critical.

Timpanogos' reward for Tuesday's win? A quarterfinal matchup tonight with the top-ranked Skyline Eagles.

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E-mail: jimr@desnews.com