TAYLORSVILLE — The Lehi Pioneers' girls basketball team came into the final two weeks of the season with limited expectations, but three wins later and suddenly they're in the 4A state tournament quarterfinals.

After a slow start, Region 7 fourth seed Lehi came on strong in the second quarter to take out Region 6 second seed Olympus 46-30 for the easy first-round upset and a trip to a place most people would have deemed impossible two weeks ago.

Before the Pioneers took a trip to Orem on the Tigers' senior night and came away with a victory over last year's state champions and this year's region champs, it looked like they'd miss the playoffs all together. But then not only did they gain confidence from the win, they grabbed another victory over Payson to steal the fourth-place seed and a less-daunting playoff opponent.

"We turned the whole season around with that win," Lehi coach Kahlil Sikander said of the victory over Orem. "It gave all the girls confidence.

"They're playing together now, something they didn't do early in the year."

And the surprising trip to the quarters started after a 5-3 deficit at the end of the first quarter, a quarter Sikander would rather forget.

"I was thinking it was going to be a long night," he said about the first quarter, adding that the low score and poor execution from both teams was just first-quarter tournament jitters.

But when the bell rang on the second period, the Pioneers came to play, outscoring Olympus 21-6 and taking a 13-point lead. From then on, they never looked back.

Much of the comeback was courtesy of Kiley Wardwell, who actually likes her new place on the bench.

"She's really stepped up and gained confidence the last couple of weeks. Lately I've had her come off the bench and watch the game develop, and it's made a big difference. Kiley can do a lot of one-on-one and open things up off the dribble for us," Sikander said of his playmaker.

Wardwell finished with a game-high 13 points, including three deflating treys.

Darci Downs added her own brand of killer instinct as she took over down the stretch, scoring seven of her 10 points in the fourth quarter. Alexis Stadel was important to the second-quarter run as she knocked down three shots in that period for her six points. Nine Pioneers scored in the game.

The Pioneers went into the contest with a goal of forcing the Titans to beat them from the outside as they took away the paint, and they succeeded in their efforts, holding them to under double-digit scoring in three of the four quarters.

Meg Williams led Olympus with 12, and Heather Giffin added 11 for the Titans.

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