High school girls basketball: Lehi wins round 1 of new rivalry

SARATOGA SPRINGS — In the most emotional of circumstances, the Lehi Pioneers girls basketball team traveled to Westlake to take on the school that opened just this year, splitting off from Lehi and taking much of the previous Lehi girls basketball squad with it.

As happens every time a new school opens and takes students from the old school, an immediate rivalry is created. And this was the first time that the two schools' girls basketball teams had a shot at each other. The rivalry was born when the old defeated the new as Lehi pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 47-38 victory.

In a side note, the game was also the Region 7 opener for both teams.

"To be honest, I was not looking at it being a region game at all. All I could think of was that we were playing Westlake," said Lehi coach Troy Gifford. "This was the biggest game of the year so far just because of who Westlake is. So many of the girls on that team played with our girls."

Emotions were high on both sides, and it was obvious as neither team was able to get its game going in the first half as the Pioneers led 7-6 at the end of the first quarter and 18-17 at halftime.

Westlake wasn't helped by 6-foot-5 Elle Brainard's early foul trouble that kept her on the bench for most of the game. And when junior varsity player Megan Parr came in late in the game to hold off Brainard, Parr played some solid defense on the Westlake junior.

Gifford tried to change things up all game long and went with a press in the fourth quarter that seemed to fluster the young Thunder players, as most of the team is made up of sophomores and freshmen.

"We tried to mix it up a little bit, probably more than in any other game. It was a great effort for us," said Gifford, who was pleased with the play of Aerin Ogden, who came in off the bench for nine points. He also liked the impressive free throw shooting by his team, as the Pioneers finished 20-of-27 from the line, with Katie Rogers going 10-of-12 from the stripe and Jackie Cattani knocking in 7-of-8 freebies.

As usual, the Lehi team was balanced all-around with Rogers leading Lehi's balanced scoring with 14 points. Jackie Cattani scored 10 and Aeerin Ogden add nine off the bench for the Pioneers (9-1). The Pioneers are still awaiting the return of starter Brooke Barnes and her long distance shot.

Brainard led Westlake (1-7) with 14 points. Shannon Jenson added 10 and Alyssa Diaz added six for the Thunder. Freshman Ashley Calder came off the bench for four points and some solid play on both ends of the court.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com