High school girls basketball: Bengals turn back defending 4A champion Bruins

OREM — Last year's defending 4A girls basketball state champion, the Mountain View Bruins, got off to a slow start against the highly respected Brighton Bengals and never were able to claw their way back into the game, dropping their first contest of the year 47-32 on Tuesday night.

The victory gave the Bengals a 2-0 record while dropping Mountain View to 1-1 early in the season.

"It was a great win. We'll take it. We played some great defense in holding them to only 32 points," said Brighton coach Jim Gresh, who was pleased overall with the way his team played as they prepare for a long, hard season.

Not only do the Bengals have to play in rough-and-tumble Region 4, but they also have some tough games scheduled outside of region action in an effort to prepare themselves for the state playoffs.

After losing in the first round of the playoffs last season, the Bengals have high hopes to do much more this year, with an overall goal of competing for a spot in the state finals.

"We want to get even further this year, and we have a lot more experience, so hopefully that will happen," said Brighton's Kimberly Ringwood, who also believes her team has what it takes to compete with anyone in Region 4.

The Bengals threw the Bruins for a loop in the first half, allowing Mountain View to score only eight total points, including a mere two in the second quarter. The Bengals racked up 22 points in the first half and went on a 12-2 run in the first quarter, followed by an 11-2 run in the second quarter and early in the third.

And then it all seemed to fall apart, as Mountain View came back with a nifty little 11-2 run of its own.

"We knew our defense was getting our offense going, and we let up for a little while, so we tightened it up and made more shots," said Brighton's Katie Tominaga, who finished with 13 points, including three from downtown.

The Bengals pulled themselves together at that point after Mountain View had chopped the lead to 28-21 and extended it to a 36-23 advantage at the end of the third quarter.

The two teams played pretty even basketball through the entire second half, as both teams picked it up offensively.

Brighton's Shelbi Everett finished with a game-high 14 points for the Bengals, and Ringwood added eight. Marissa Egbert added a trey for Brighton to give the Bengals four from behind the arc in the contest.

There were no real standouts for the Bruins, who had an extremely balanced attack with seven players scoring for them and no one with more than seven points.

Shyanne Halalilo scored seven to lead the Bruins, Kelsey Brown added six and Mika Pinner had five, including a 3-pointer. Three players popped shots in from long distance, with Halalilo knocking down a pair and her twin sister Shanna adding one. Three players added four points for the Bruins.

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