3A girls high school basketball: Wasatch a slight favorite to repeat as 3A champion

This year's 3A girls basketball state tournament features a 20-win team, two 19-win teams, an 18-win team and two 17-win teams. With so many fantastic teams, predicting what will transpire at the E Center this weekend virtually impossible.

Top-ranked Wasatch — the 20-win team — would seem to be the slight favorite over the rest of the quarterfinalists, but the Wasps will have their hands full repeating as state champs.

Only one 3A girls basketball team has won back-to-back state championships since 1987, with Morgan accomplishing the feat in 2003 and 2004.

The quarterfinals get underway at the E Center on Thursday, beginning with Carbon (19-3) vs. Grantsville (18-4) at 4:10 p.m., followed by Canyon View (13-8) vs. Wasatch (20-2) at 5:50, Morgan (17-5) vs. Emery (17-4) at 7:30 and Judge (19-2) vs. Hurricane (11-11) at 9:10 p.m.

Only one of the four games is a rematch of a regular season encounter, and it figures to be a dandy.

Visiting Carbon overcame a small fourth-quarter deficit back in January to rally past Grantsville for the 56-53 victory. Patricia Smith scored a career-high 31 points in the victory, and the Dinos will be counting on similar heroics against the Region 11 champs.

Carbon traditionally fares well at state, and many may recall that it was the Dinos who narrowly lost to undefeated Wasatch 34-31 in last year's quarterfinals.

For Wasatch, it would be wise to avoid flirting with disaster again this year.

A year ago in the quarterfinals Wasatch fell behind by 14 points against Carbon, only to rally for the win. Canyon View would love to see Wasatch come out shooting blanks again. It might be the Falcons only hope. They're 1-4 against fellow quarterfinalists, with that lone win coming against Hurricane.

The other marquee clash on Thursday is Morgan-Emery. Both teams are capable of scoring in bunches and both are stingy defensive teams that rank near the top of 3A.

The nightcap at the E Center Thursday pits heavily-favored Judge against an extremely young Hurricane team. Judge, which lost to Wasatch in last year's championship game, would seem to have the big advantage, but Hurricane coach Claire Woodbury has been very impressed with his team in the past few months.

He credits a 27-point loss to Riverton on New Year's Eve as a big reason for the recent success.

"I thank coach (Ron) Ence for showing us how the game of basketball should be played. From that moment on we've been a pretty good team," said Woodbury.

Once the 3A title game rolls around Saturday night, many foresee a championship rematch between region rivals Wasatch and Judge, but there's too much talent across the board this year for any team to overlook anyone else.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com