High school girls basketball: Bountiful takes care of business at Wasatch in rematch of last year’s 5A semifinal

In Wednesday night’s much-anticipated showdown between the 5A contenders — a virtual rematch of last year’s semifinals — Bountiful took a while to get going, but once it started there was no looking back.

Generous coach Joel Burton thought his players looked a little tired in the opening minutes, possibly from the night before against Skyline, but they quickly built a nine-point lead at the end of the quarter and never looked back in a 56-46 victory over Wasatch.

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“When we started the game, I felt like our legs were tired and it took us a little while to get into the flow of what we like to do. And then just saw us loosen up … and then the shots started to fall. So it was good to see our kids get that flow again tonight,” Burton said.

Bountiful used balanced scoring to secure the victory, led by Ute signee Milika Satuala with 15 points, Malah Nelson with 12 points, Maile Murdock with 11 points and Brynna Castleton with 10 points.

“If I could do it, I would do it every game. Thankfully, we have some kids that are definitely growing up and starting to take the pressure off the starting five. So it’s nice to see Miley and Peyton (Orchard) really start to fill that role and a lot of other guys start to get confident at the college level,” Burton said.

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“We know the problem this year is going to be finding the teams behind No. 1 — the teams behind our starting five, and we’re starting to address that.”

Most of Bountiful’s damage was done in the first half, with the team leading 16-7 after the first quarter, then at 5:54 of the second quarter, freshman Murdock hit a corner 3-pointer to extend the lead to 21-7, her third of the game.

Wasatch ultimately stymied the Redhawks’ fast start, cutting the lead to 10 points by halftime.

At the end of the third quarter, the score gap narrowed to 38-31. Wasatch’s momentum didn’t last long. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, with the help of Satuala’s three-pointer, Bountiful went on a 12-4 spurt, extending the lead to 50-35.

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Wasatch’s press caused some turnovers for Bountiful late in the game, causing its lead to shrink to seven points in the final minute, but the Hornets had no time to cut the lead further and fell to 10-2 on the season.

The win pushed three-time defending state champion Bountiful’s season record to 8-1.