3A girls basketball quarterfinal: Loamanu lifts Judge in heart-stopping win over Emery

WEST VALLEY CITY — All of the countless, monotonous and painful hours of physical therapy paid off for Judge Memorial sophomore Saane Loamanu on Thursday.

Laomanu, who blew out an ACL a little more than six months ago, sank two free throws with 14.6 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs the lead for good in their heart-stopping 61-58 win over Emery in the Class 3A quarterfinals at the E Center. The win puts Judge in the semifinals against Morgan today.

The game was tied at 58 when Loamanu was fouled. She walked confidently to the stripe, because after all, her torn up knee didn't prevent her from shooting free throws during the past six months.

"I've been practicing, so I'm used to it," Loamanu said. "It was good to be there at the end to help my team."

How the Bulldogs got to that point, however, was not without a highly controversial call late in the game.

Emery led 53-51 with 1:05 remaining when guard Jodi Robertson was called for an over-the-back foul on a Spartans possession. The foul was Robertson's fifth and fouled her out of the game. She then said something to one of the officials and was whistled for a technical foul.

The Bulldogs' Alison Brann made two technical free throws and Mikelle Mancini sank two regular foul shots to put Judge ahead 55-53. The Bulldogs kept possession and Tina Fakahafua made two free throws after she was fouled.

The sequence resulted in a six-point swing in 16 seconds, and the Spartans weren't too happy about it.

"The technical foul, I thought, was a bull-crap call," said Emery coach Steven Gordon. "That hurt us. That was the game-changer right there. I thought he (the official) missed the call (the over-the-back) in the first place, and then he called a technical pretty quick, so I thought it was bull."

The Spartans won't be getting any sympathy cards from the Bulldogs, who are in the state semifinals for the first time in several years. They especially won't receive any condolences from Loamanu, who suffered her devastating ACL injury at Judge's summer camp when she landed awkwardly after attempting a layup.

Bulldogs coach Jeremy Chatterton, who was guarding Loamanu when she suffered the injury, said he's amazed at how fast she was able to resume playing basketball.

"She worked her tail off while doing therapy and doing everything else," he said. "She deserves the minutes she's getting and she's making the most of them."

All of the Bulldogs made the most of their chance to play against the reigning 3A champions in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Emery had an eight-point lead in the first quarter, a seven-point lead in the second quarter and a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.

The Spartans took their biggest lead of the game in the third quarter when Meagan Pearson hit one of her five 3-pointers to put Emery ahead, 32-21. The Bulldogs answered, as they did every time Emery took a lead, with an 11-0 run to tie the game.

"We don't give up," said Judge guard Erica Martinez, who had a team-high 16 points. "We're always trying no matter what happens.

---

E-mail: aaragon@desnews.com@desnews.com