SLIDESHOW: Crown Trophy Harry Burchell Classic
WASHINGTON TERRACE - For the Trojans, winning never gets old.
Tangling with defending tournament champion Fremont in the opening round of the Crown Trophy Harry Burchell Classic, the Morgan High School girls basketball team kept up its undefeated start to the season.
Holding a slim five-point lead against the scrappy Silver Wolves, the Trojans erupted in the fourth quarter, outscoring Fremont 17-4 en route to the 55-37 victory in Laker Gym on Friday night.
"Fremont's a tough, scrappy team; they battled hard and got themselves second chances early on," Morgan coach Brad Matthews said. "I felt like that was the difference in the fourth quarter, we started rebounding the ball."
The Trojans, who are 186-36 this decade, improved to 3-0 on the young season
and will face host Bonneville, a 39-32 winner over Northridge in Friday's
second game, for the Classic championship today at 3 p.m. Its the third straight blowout win for Morgan, which has outscored its three opponents by 85 points this season.
Morgan edged ahead early, taking a 5-0 lead, with Fremont breaking out a trapping press to score six straight points to gain the 6-5 advantage. The Trojans steadily showed more confidence against the pressure as the game went on, something Matthews feels like will be a strong point this year.
"I kind of hope teams do try and press us; we have 4-5 really good ball handlers," Matthews said. "I thought we passed the ball pretty well tonight. We were looking for the open player."
Senior guard Angela Blazzard led the way offensively for Morgan, scoring 14 points, while Ashley Garfield had 11 and Rachael Johnson had nine.
The Trojans pushed the lead to eight at halftime, with cutting the deficit to five entering the final period.
Garfield and Chelsea Morgan each scored six points in the fourth quarter as Morgan pulled away.
Fremont, which was 17-1 all-time in Burchell Classic play entering the game, fell to 0-3. Kelsie Bell led the Silver Wolves with a game-high 16 points.
BONNEVILLE 39, NORTHRIDGE 32: At Washington Terrace, the Lakers advanced to the championship game of their own tournament by scraping past the Knights.
Bonneville never trailed in the game and led by as many as 13 early in the second half before Northridge clawed its way back.
Junior guard Brittany Harmston scored 17 points for Bonneville, mostly by cutting into the paint for layups. Junior guard Valerie Buckway added nine for the Lakers, who captured their first win of the season and improved to 1-2.
Bonneville led 25-14 at halftime, but Northridge made its way back because of the Lakers' failure to convert at the free throw line. Bonneville was just 2-of-11 from the charity stripe, including 0-6 in the fourth quarter as the Knights (1-2) closed within five with more than two minutes remaining.
* WOODS CROSS 46, CLEARFIELD 33: At Clearfield, the Falcons fell to the Wildcats by missing 27 free throws.
Britlie Silvester and Mackenzie Day each scored nine points for Clearfield (1-2).
* BINGHAM 47, WEBER 35: At Pleasant View, the Warriors' Erica Olpin scored a team-high 10 points, but winless Weber (0-4) got outscored in each quarter by the Miners.
Desiree Young had seven points for the Warriors.
* TAYLORSVILLE 60, DAVIS 39: At Kaysville, the Darts' Betsy McCausland scored a team-high 12 points with two 3-pointers for winless Davis (0-3).
Ali Smith had two 3s and finished with seven points for the Darts.
* BOX ELDER 37, BEAR RIVER 30: At Brigham City, Katie Vincent recorded a double-double with 13 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks for the Bees (1-1), who won their first game.
The Bears' Shayla Buxton had 12 points and two 3-pointers.
* LAYTON CHRISTIAN 53, WENDOVER 37: At Wendover, the Eagles' Jasmine Porter and Nikki Snell combined for 27 points.
Porter put in a game-high 15 points and Snell had 12 for undefeated Layton Christian (3-0).
* VIEWMONT 49, HILLCREST 32: At Bountiful, after consecutive winless seasons in 2007-08 and 2008-09, the Vikings are 2-1.
Samantha Sappenfield rang up a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds for Viewmont. Leah Ellertson had seven points and four steals for the Vikings.
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