High school basketball: Eaton leads Springville over Sky View

SPRINGVILLE — The atmosphere in Springville was supercharged with tension Friday night as the state's No. 2 and No. 4 teams battled it out on the Red Devils' court for the first time since meeting in last year's 4A state tournament semifinals.

The Red Devils pulled away bit by bit every quarter and treated themselves to a 69-54 victory over the Sky View Bobcats.

"There's a rivalry between us since last year at state. We know we're the two top teams in 4A right now, so we really brought it tonight," said Springville star Lexi Eaton, who broke a career scoring high against her rivals from the North with 42 points in the victory.

Both teams walked onto the court and appeared to be on a mission to prove they were the top 4A team, the team to beat once the playoffs roll around again. The high emotions began right from the opening tip and ran hotter and hotter as the game ticked on.

The Red Devils had a slight edge over the Bobcats in every quarter as they hurried out to a 13-10 lead at the end of the first and a 25-20 lead at halftime. But Eaton had only scored 11 points by the half. But 11 points was nothing compared to what the BYU-bound guard exploded with in the second half.

"Just as a team, we talked about stepping it up in the third quarter. We've been having a hard time keeping up our intensity in the third quarter, so we really concentrated on that today," said Eaton, who was understating her own second-half contribution to the team effort, as she poured in 31 points in only 16 minutes of play. She also added 10 rebounds to her 42-point effort and continues to lead the state in scoring with an average of 26.6 points per game this season.

And she did it from all over the court, from driving to the hole and getting fouled to grabbing boards and putting them back up to draining three treys from long distance at key points in the game. She even went 17-of-21 from the free-throw line as the Bobcats couldn't contain her.

But the game was much more than Eaton's incredible offensive performance. Things started to get a little chippy between the two incredibly talented teams, and Sky View coach Paul Hansen received the first technical foul of the game midway through the third quarter.

The Red Devils came out of the third with a still manageable 47-39 lead, but Eaton scored seven straight points to start the fourth, while Aubry Boehme tried to keep pace and scored all four of Sky View's points during the same frame.