The Carbon Lady Dinos rallied from a 13-point second half deficit to earn a 52-49 overtime victory over the Richfield Wildcats in the quarterfinals of the 3A State Tournament Thursday night at the Sevier Valley Center in Richfield.
Trailing by nine points entering the fourth quarter, Carbon outscored Richfield 18-9 in the final eight minutes. After coming up with a defensive stop at the end of the regulation, the Lady Dinos held a lead the majority of the extra period to secure the win.
“This group listens, they play hard and we are one of the best defensive teams in the state,” said head coach Ted Bianco. “We don’t have any freshman, sophomores, juniors or seniors, we have basketball players. I told them to be basketball players tonight and that’s what they were.”
Freshman Madi Orth scored a game-high 17 points in her second state tournament game. While the Carbon offense struggled early, Orth scored 11 of the team’s 17 first half points to keep them within striking distance. Playing the majority of the second half with four fouls, Orth was limited to six points, but also gathered five rebounds.
Makenna Blanc ended with 13 points, including a crucial free throw in the final seconds of regulation to tie the game at 44. While struggling from the field early, Blanc’s aggression presented opportunities that she took advantage of at the foul line.
Following Blanc’s game tying free throw the Wildcats had an opportunity to win at the buzzer. Driving the length of the court, Kate Robinson’s shot in the paint rolled off the rim as regulation came to a close.
“At that point I told them it’s a brand new ball game and if we keep the momentum on our side we are going to win,” Bianco told his team ahead of the extra quarter. “At the end I told them to guard the three-point and don’t foul. That’s exactly what they did.”
The Lady Dinos attempted just two shots in the overtime period. All eight of their points in the final four minutes came at the free throw line where as a team they shot 8-8. Holding a 50-49 lead with only nine seconds remaining, junior Lyndee Mower connected on two clutch foul shots to advance the lead to three.
Richfield had one last chance to force a second over time, but Sydney Knutson’s three point shot hit the front of the rim, assuring a Carbon win and trip to the semifinals.
“The last time we played at our place and beat them it was because of the free throw line and that was the same tonight,” said Bianco. “Tonight was just as hard as the first two. Richfield and Coach Peterson have a heck of a program, but our girls wanted to win this game tonight and they did.”
Carbon will now face the winner of No. 1 South Sevier and No. 8 Morgan in the semifinals Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.. The winner of that game will then advance to the 3A State Championship on Saturday.
Live coverage of Friday’s game will begin at 2:40 on KRPX 95.3 The Peak. The live audio stream will also be available at castlecountryradio.com.