High school girls basketball: Vikings win rematch with Beetdiggers

SANDY — Though most of the personnel has changed for the Pleasant Grove Vikings and the Jordan Beetdiggers, last year's quarterfinal playoff meeting between the two girls basketball teams still lingers indelibly in the minds of those remaining.

And when those two teams took to the court on Thursday night at Jordan High, the memories were still strong. This time the outcome was night and day different from that fateful meeting last year as the Vikings took control in the early going and walked away with the 59-40 win against the playoff foes from last year that took them out of the state tournament.

In that quarterfinal matchup Jennifer Hamson of the Vikings hit a pair of freebies with no time remaining to send the game into overtime, only to see the Beetdiggers run away with the victory on freebies of their own.

But this year Hamson was back for the Vikings, and most of Jordan's stars from last season were lost to graduation, and Hamson took plenty of advantage of the opposing team's new personnel by knocking in 21 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. She was so dominant through the first three quarters that she rode the bench much of the fourth.

"Last year was her first real year of playing basketball," said Pleasant Grove coach Glenn Larson of his 6-foot-6 force in the middle.

"It took a while for her to understand what the game was all about. She needed to get used to girls trying to hang on her, and this year she's just so much more confident. She passes out of the post well, keeps the ball high and shoots it soft," added Larson.

The Vikings were able to make it a half court game with a pace to their liking through most of the night, and Jordan, like many other teams, didn't have the height to deal with the tough Pleasant Grove posts. They also didn't put on a press of any sort, which allowed Larson to relax through the game about his young and inexperienced guard play. His guards did a nice job of getting the ball inside where the posts just took over.

His other posts played well too as Ana Finau finished with 10 points, and Katie Mitchell added six points and seven assists.

"Katie played a nice game. As a senior she's really embraced the younger players and likes to get them the ball," said Larson. As for his guard play, he did note that they were improved against the Beetdiggers, but still had a lot to work on as far as playing against the tough quick and athletic guards the Vikings will see come time to play against Region 4 competition. "Our goal is for our guards to grow up by region," Larson said.

One of those guards, MacKenzie Larson, had 11 points and looked solid until suffering a tough hit late in the game. Danyele Hoffman also put in seven points for the Vikings. The Beetdiggers were led by Bree Scuderi, who sank a pair of treys en route to her 14 points. Luciana Soares put in 11 points for Jordan, and Steph Burt added eight.

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