Jessica Brede snags a high pass in a recent game. Pahranagat Valley looks to wrap up their fourth league title this weekend.
The Lady Panthers will likely wrap up their fourth consecutive league title and ninth in the last 12 years. In those years, coach Amy Huntsman’s teams have been 1A girls state champions five times.
This past week, the girls had back-to-back wins 58-33 over Word of Life and 46-28 over Indian Springs. They defeated Beaver Dam on Feb. 11 49-11.
After a close 15-13 first quarter lead against Word of Life, the Panthers turned up the defense, creating numerous turnovers, and outscoring the Eagles 17-2 in the second quarter.
And they continued their strong offensive play in the second half. The 58 points is the highest single-game score of the season.
Jessica Brede led the way with 19 points. Kelli Miller and Taylor Higbee both contributed eight. The girls were also 6-for-8 at the foul line.
Taylor Wilson had 14 points for Word of Life (4-4, 2-4) and Ivy Locketh had 10.
There was better competition the following night against Indian Springs as the Lady Thunderbirds (9-3, 3-2) are in third place in the league standings.
Again, Brede was the leading scorer for PVHS with 15, but Dally Barlow was close behind with nine.
It was tight the first half with Pahranagat only leading 23-22 at halftime.
“We didn’t start out as well in the first half,” Huntsman said, “not as strong defensively then and gave up a couple of threes to let them stay in the game and hang around way too long.”
But the defense came through again, holding Indian Springs to only six points in the second half.
In the meantime, the Panther girls (9-10, 4-0) tore up the Thunderbirds with a 23-6 second-half outburst, “being a little more aggressive on the defensive end,” Huntsman said.
Martina DuBray was top scorer for Indian Springs with 11, but she fouled out early in the fourth quarter and Pahranagat then pulled away even more.
This week, the girls finish up the league season. They host Sandy Valley (4-12, 0-6) Feb. 14 in the league finale.
The Region II playoffs await Feb. 20-22 in Las Vegas against the top four teams from the 1A East, currently led by Wells (17-3), Owyhee (15-7) and Eureka (13-6) with McDermitt (9-9) as the trailer.
