4A state girls basketball tournament: Askew leads Skyline past Roy

TAYLORSVILLE — It is not Miquelle Askew's nature to be the center of attention.

But, like it or not, when the 6-foot-3 senior steps onto the basketball court, she becomes the focal point, both for her teammates and opponents.

"At the first of the season it was hard because I felt like I was being selfish," said the Skyline center, who led the Eagles to a 57-45 victory in the first round of the 4A state girls basketball tournament at Salt Lake Community College on Monday.

Askew's feelings about being the focal point of the Eagle offense changed when she realized her ability to play "like a beast" was really an act of service to her teammates.

"I was really helping my teammates out," said Askew, whose 35 points and 13 rebounds proved she's now right at home in the spotlight. "If that's what is working for us, then I'll go along with it."

And then she blushes a little.

The Eagles jumped out to a quick lead with Askew scoring 12 points in the first quarter. In fact, while her teammates got involved in the subsequent quarters, at times it looked like there wasn't any way to stop Askew in the paint.

She said her coach challenged her before the tournament.

"She's been awesome," Askew said of Eagles head coach Deb Bennett. "She said, 'You need to be more of a beast.'"

So she's just trying to follow her coach's directives.

Bennett was beaming with how her team not only played Monday, but with how they rallied after losing in the first round last year.

"It meant a lot to us," said Bennett, choking with emotion. "Last year was hard. There were a lot of challenges the team had to overcome to get here."

There was dissension, rumors, bad blood, finger pointing and eventually two players left the program for other schools.

"There was dissension and a lot of things said that were not true," said Bennett. In fact, at the end of the season, they went out and bought T-shirts that proclaimed them a "team" to try and change the energy for this season.

Senior forward Ta'a Tuinei maybe had the greatest challenge as she came back after having a baby in mid-October. She looked like just another piece of a well-oiled machine on Monday as she scored seven points, grabbed eight rebounds and earned four assists.