3A girls basketball quarterfinal: Nervous Tigers stun Grantsville

WEST VALLEY CITY — Shanae Vaifanua was a mental wreck prior to Thursday's 3A quarterfinals. She was so nervous, her coach had to practically force feed her at lunch, saying, "We couldn't have her fade away in the second half."

It's scary to think how well she might play without those nerves. The senior guard scored 18 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists to lead the Tigers to a 61-47 victory over Grantsville, which sported a glossy 21-1 record heading into the game.

"First game at state is the nervous one, but I couldn't ask for any more out of those girls," said Hurricane coach Clair Woodbury. "I've been preaching poise for two days, saying you're not nervous, you're not nervous, but they were nervous. But we played through it."

Realistically, those nerves were soothed early at the E Center. The Tigers never trailed after a Vaifanua lay-up put them ahead 6-5 early, and they extended it to 10 midway through the second quarter.

Hurricane led by eight at halftime, and then 13 after the third quarter, but Woodbury said he was never relaxed. He always assumed Grantsville would make a run at his team — you don't win 20 games in the regular season without being a very talented team.

The closest Grantsville came to making that phantom run came with about three minutes remaining in the game, whittling Hurricane's deficit to 52-44. The Cowboys had a possession to cut into the lead further, but it ended in a missed jumper and Hurricane responded by scoring nine straight points to ice the game.

"There are eight outstanding teams here, and the team that wins it is going to have to play three straight great games," said Woodbury. "Anytime you score 61 on a team that good, that's a pretty good game."

In addition to Vaifanua's big game, 3A's leading scorer Megan Clyde chipped in with 14 while Nicole Woodbury added 11.

Grantsville was led by Sammie Jensen's 16 points and 13 more from Marissa Robbins, but it struggled all game shooting just 35 percent compared to 44 for Hurricane.

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