High school girls basketball: T-Birds win defensive struggle

PROVO — A must-win game against your biggest rival. That's what the Provo and Timpview girls basketball teams were facing when they came up against each other Friday night.

The Region 7 foes had much more on the line than just a rivalry contest and some bragging rights at the Timpview gym, however. The teams are battling for not just playoff position this year but for any place in the tournament at all. Coming into Friday night's contests, Timpview, Provo and Orem were fighting for just two playoff positions, so T-Birds' coach Kawika Akina told his players this was a make-or-break game, just as if they were in the sudden-death tournament already.

"This game was huge. I told the girls we had to win this game. If we win we move on and if we lose we're done," said Akina, whose team has to play against a ranked Payson squad next Friday in its final league game.

And the T-Birds came out strong and led most of the way, finally winning their must-win effort 42-32 over the Provo Bulldogs.

"We pulled out a victory. Actually today we were able to hold onto a lead and win," said Akina, whose team has struggled with holding onto early edges for most of the season.

The T-Birds now find themselves at 4-7 in Region 7, while Provo fell to 3-7, and Orem is right there in the mix too. The teams could easily end up in a three-way tie.

It was defense that was key in the victory as neither team could do much from an offensive standpoint. Both teams knuckled down defensively and made things as tough on the other as they could.

"I thought we played good defense overall. Everybody stepped up as a team. Everybody is finally starting to figure it out, helping on the drive, moving their feet, staying down," said Akina, who hopes his team's new efforts on defense will come in handy in its game against Payson next Friday, which could end up being just as important as this one was.

Timpview ran out to an 8-0 lead over the Bulldogs before Provo came back to make it 8-6 at the end of the first. The Bulldogs then evened things up at 10 on a 3-pointer and a free throw by Ashley Kuchar, who finished with 10 points to lead Provo in scoring.