High school girls basketball: Cottonwood edges Orem

OREM — A glimmer of light shone through the dark cloud that has been hanging over the Cottonwood girls basketball team this season when their trip to Orem brought about a 41-38 victory.

The Colts have been suffering all season long through one injury after another, currently playing without their star player, two starters and three key cogs in their lineup. Junior varsity players are no longer sitting the bench for the Colts, they're playing in the games in big-minute action.

"With our two starting posts injured, I thought our junior varsity players came in doing what needed to be done. They came back and fought through adversity," said Cottonwood coach Janae Hirschi.

The team fell behind early but never trailed by more than eight points to the Tigers at 28-20 midway through the third quarter. Then the Colts started their comeback and never turned back.

That comeback fell mostly onto the shoulders of McKenzie Anderson. She was shooting the lights out from long distance, draining four treys en route to her game-high 22 points.

"She really stepped up. She took things to heart and hit key shots. She really jump-started the rest of the team," said Hirschi.

She was happy that her team was able to come back from a deficit to grab only its second victory of the season, saying the win will provide a much-needed confidence boost for the rest of the year.

The Colts schedule this year has been loaded with ranked opponents as they attempt to get ready for their Region 2 action in their move up to 5A. After playing Bingham to an overtime loss, the team then went on to lose three more to solid opponents, and their confidence had taken a real hit.

"I hope to build confidence and mold this team together, whoever is able to play for us this season," she added after noting that the returns of Fehi Fakailoatonga, Sierra Durfee and Dev Smith are up in the air.

The Colts came back from eight points down to take a nine point lead at 41-32 for their own widest margin. Then the Tigers made their own comeback attempt. But it came a little late, as though they were able to get to within three at 41-38 with a Maggie Plothow runner, the Colts then were able to dribble out the clock and sneak away with an important win.

Vika Havili and Hana Tautaiolofue each scored 5 points for the Colts, as did Jewel Peterson, who drained a trey in the process, giving Cottonwood five 3-pointers in the game.

Plothow and Lauren Chung-Hoon each scored 10 to lead the Tigers, and Kaitlyn Albach finished with 6.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com