3A girls high school basketball: Wasatch dominates fatigued Carbon

WEST VALLEY CITY — Carbon averaged 53.8 points this season, the highest total in 3A girls basketball.

In Friday's semifinals at the E Center it scored a whopping 21 points, so it's pretty easy to figure out what happened against No. 1 Wasatch.

The Wasps, who are looking to become the first repeat champ in 3A since Morgan in 2003-2004, had little trouble knocking off Carbon 40-21 to advance to Saturday's championship game at 5 p.m. They'll face the winner of this afternoon's Judge-Emery semifinal game.

Wasatch coach Roger Pyper knows the easy victory was an aberration, but one he'll gladly take.

"It was one of those things where we're at home eating our food and sleeping in our bed, and they're on the road and on the second day of a road trip," said Pyper. "We've been there many times, their legs weren't there. And they were not the team they'd be on a normal night."

Indeed the Dinos weren't. They made just 7-of-43 shots for 16 percent and turned the ball over 15 times. The day after making eight 3-pointers in a quarterfinal win over Grantsville, Carbon couldn't knock down a single trey against the second-stingiest scoring defense in 3A.

"Our defense was terrific. We did not give them the type of looks they had last night," said Pyper.

Wasatch's coach was adamant that such an off night can be partly blamed on sleeping in a hotel.

"I think the second day of a tournament for high school kids, it certainly does. They're having fun, they're with their classmates, no matter what you do as coaches it's hard to get them to settle down and do the things you want them to," he said.

Both teams came out tight in the first quarter, neither quite sure what to expect. Wasatch turned the ball over six times and allowed seven offensive rebounds, but still led 7-3 after the first quarter as Carbon went 0 of 13 from the field.

Wasatch extended that lead to 20-10 at the half, and Pyper encouraged his team to put the game away for good in the third quarter against an obviously fatigued team. The Wasps did just that as their balanced scoring extended the lead to a 32-14 after three quarters.

Kim Parker led the balanced offensive attack for Wasatch with nine points, with Natalie Pennington chipping in with eight. Tia Pappas led Carbon with five points.

E-MAIL: jedward@desnews.com