Lady Broncos play well but fall to top-three teams

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School girls basketball team faced two of the top three teams in Utah 2A girls basketball this past weekend
On Friday, January 30 the #8 Lady Broncos welcomed the #3 Enterprise Lady Wolves to the SJHS gym. In the teams’ previous meeting January 9 in Enterprise San Juan had suffered a 42-point loss.
But this past Friday was completely different. San Juan looked great right from the start against their Region 18 foes.
The Lady Broncos fell behind, but never fully lost the pace against the Lady Wolves, trailing 12-9 after one quarter and 29-22 at halftime.
San Juan kept coming in the third quarter, matching Enterprise’s ten points to head into the fourth quarter down 39-32.
Then it was time for some hometown fireworks. The Lady Broncos began to rally and never let up until they finally took the lead in the game.
With only one second left to go and San Juan up 48-46, Enterprise’s Eliza Balajadia drove right into the stationary defense of Evony Sampson, bouncing off the Lady Bronco junior and falling to the floor.
But the officials called a foul on Sampson, sending Balajadia to the foul line. The Enterprise senior made both shots, sending the game to overtime.
San Juan had poured their hearts into the final eight minutes of regulation and thought they had earned the upset win, so it was especially tough to have to play an additional four minutes.
Still, the Lady Broncos never threw in the towel and they matched the Lady Wolves bucket-for-bucket in overtime.
With the game tied 53-53 Enterprise inbounded, ran the ball into the frontcourt, and set a pick to open a lane for Balajadia.
She went around the San Juan defense to the baseline and missed her shot, but Enterprise’s 6’2” freshman Hadlee Holt was right in front for the rebound and scored at the buzzer to give the Lady Wolves a 55-53 win.
The loss was heartbreaking for the Lady Broncos, but the girls had shown great class, skill, and fight all night long and could truly hold their heads high.
Fullwood led San Juan scoring with 18 points, but two other girls scored in double digits in the win also. Kaidence Mitchell poured in 13 points and Brooklyn Lameman got ten. Lameman hit three treys in the loss.
Ella Stearns collected eight points on the night, Daveigh Mitchell had three, and Evony Sampson rounded out the scoring with one point.
Equipped with the knowledge that they can play with any team in the state after their performance on Friday night San Juan welcomed an even tougher challenge to the SJHS gym on Saturday in #2 Beaver.
Early in the game it looked like the Lady Broncos were going to set themselves up to challenge for another possible upset. The teams went back and forth for the first half of the opening quarter, but a Brooklyn Lameman three-pointer late in the frame put San Juan up 13-5.
From that point Beaver began to wrestler the momentum away from the home team. Lady Beaver sophomore Ruby Lurth hit her own three to answer at the end of the first, making the score 13-8.
Beaver continued what ended up being a 14-point run in the third quarter, taking a 19-13 lead before San Juan got back on the board.
The teams battled back and forth for the remainder of the game. The Lady Broncos kept it close, even tying the score on a couple occasions, but were never able to get back into the lead.
They trailed 25-22 at halftime and 40-35 after three quarters until Beaver took full control in the fourth when San Juan began having to foul. The final score favored the Lady Beavers 58-46.
Khimya Fullwood again led the team with 16 points. Brooklyn Lameman scored 13 and hit both of the Lady Broncos’ three-point buckets.
Kaidence Mitchell scored nine points on the afternoon, Ella Stearns got four, and Madi Adams and Syndel Atcitty scored two each.
Despite being swept on the weekend San Juan played very well against two of the toughest teams in Utah 2A girls basketball and should be very proud of their effort.
If they play like they did this past weekend for the remainder of the season, they might just make a little noise in the upcoming postseason.
Currently the Lady Broncos are 10-10 on the year, ranked eighth in the 2A standings with one game remaining to close out the regular season.
They’ll travel to Moab to face local rival Grand County on Thursday, February 5 with the tip set for 7:00 p.m. The 2A state tournament bracket is set to be revealed on Saturday, February 7.