Hurricane uses late push to hold off Pine View and snap four-game drought
With 4:09 remaining in the fourth quarter, Hurricane's leading scorer, Morgan Stout, committed her fifth and final foul.
While it was a quiet night offensively for Stout, her senior leadership would be much-needed in a pressure-filled home stretch for Hurricane, particularly against a team three spots above you in the 4A RPI.
The Tigers led by just two over Pine View after holding an advantage as large as 11 in the opening quarter.
Momentum seemed to be on the side of the Panthers, but the Tigers (7-9, 2-4) rallied, outscoring Pine View (6-9, 2-4) 7-1 in the final four minutes to escape with a 40-32 victory, and snap a four-game losing skid.
Down the stretch, Hurricane head coach Pepper Reddish turned to Stout's younger sister, Abbigail, to spell Adri Gubler and give Hurricane a two-point guard look as Pine View upped its defensive pressure.
"I've always had Adri—my second point guard—in with her and so that they always play well together," Reddish said. "So at any time, Adri can take over. I decided to put her in, and Abbi Stout is a great fill-in for his sister. It was a great little add."
The move to the sophomore paid off, with the younger Stout tallying four points in the final two minutes.
Both the Stout's finished with six points on the night.
Throughout the night, Addi Crandall was big on the glass, particularly the offensive boards, keeping possessions alive and giving Hurricane extra possessions.
"Tonight was the night I was looking for from Addi Crandall," said Reddish. "I knew it was in there. She just put it all together. She was in the game, bouncing when she should have been bouncing, fighting for the ball, being tough, and then throwing it back up and finishing. That's what we've been working on for the last two weeks with her—finish, finish, finish."
Crandall took the work to heart early, scoring four points in the opening minutes to give the Tigers a 13-2 advantage.
"Early on, we were being calm on offense and we were making them hurry," said Reddish. "Then in the second half, they were starting to hurry us and we were going with it, instead of chilling out and taking it slow."
Crandall would finish with a team-high 13 points.
After building a seven-point halftime edge, the Panthers earned trip after trip to the charity stripe.
Pine View didn't hit a field goal until there was :30 left in the first quarter on an Addie Topham bucket.
The Panthers didn't hit again from the field until an Ashlyn Clark basket, and a three from Avery Gustin cut the lead to 17-14 midway through the period.
Pine View shot 14 free throws in the first half and converted on nine of them, keeping the game close 19-17 at halftime.
"We're a super aggressive team, like they are. They're a super aggressive team," Reddish said. "But we usually move our feet a lot better and we weren't moving our feet in the first half."
After another half of defensive basketball, the Tigers managed to walk out of Pine View High School with a well-earned victory.
In the four-game slide, Reddish has preached shots and finishing to her club.
The results showed, with Crandall's work inside, and the Tigers connecting on five threes on the night.
The Tigers defeated Pine View 41-39 in overtime back on Dec. 14, and Thursday night's win earns Hurricane a season-series sweep of Pine View.
Sean Ellertson is a sports reporter for the St. George Spectrum & Daily News. To continue to support his work, please subscribe to The Spectrum. Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanEllertson.
This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Hurricane uses late push to hold off Pine View and snap four-game drought
