Wasatch was up 14-0 at that point, then both teams went scoreless for more than two minutes before the Wasps made it 17-0 with 2:46 left in the first quarter.

“Our tallest player is 5-foot-9 and we couldn’t get anything going inside, and can’t hit open shots, so we got done early,” Clearfield coach JT Soter said. “What they did to us is kind of surprising because I thought we were past that. Getting down by 17 frustrated the girls and made them make mistakes they don’t normally make.”

The Falcons actually outscored Wasatch the rest of the way, but it was too big of a hole to climb out of and they dropped a 50-34 non-region decision to the Wasps in a Burchell Classic game at home.

Izzy Wyaskett finally got the Falcons (4-2) on the board on a driving layup at the 2:12 mark, but they trailed 19-2 after one quarter.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

Soter said most of his team’s focus was on the Wasatch duo of 6-foot-3 sophomore center Mahala Speredon and senior guard Peyton Behnke.

“One of the best teams we’ll play all year, with a twosome like that,” Soter said. “So, we wanted to do a little junk defense; have front and backside on the post and faceguard (Behnke). They brought in other players who weren’t shooting well and they shot well.”

Behnke led Wasatch (5-0) with 16 points, Speredon scored 12 and Anna Greenwell added 11.

Wasatch won the second stanza 10-7 but the Falcons started to find their footing when they changed defense to man to man.

“I thought we defended them well but it’s tough to keep them off the glass,” Soter said. “We couldn’t get an offensive board, then Brighton (Bernards) came in and got a lot of offensive rebounds, so it got a little better after the first quarter. She probably led us in rebounds tonight.”

Rebound stats were not available after the game but Bernards also contributed on the other end, nailing a 3-pointer and a bucket inside, scoring five straight points midway through the second period.

“This is a hard team and we knew it was going to be a tough game. Their tallest player is 6-foot-3 and I’m undersized at 5-foot 5,” Bernards said. “Knowing I need to go in there and hit people and get under the basket, they put me in the game to rebound, so I have a job to do even though they’re taller.”

The Wasps swarmed to a 29-9 halftime lead, with Bernards’ five points and Wyaskett’s steal making up the seven-point period.

“The people who went in the second quarter brought the energy up a lot more and even though we hit that adversity and hadn’t scored much, we stayed together and pushed ourselves, and the bench was loud,” Bernards said.

Wyaskett paced the Falcons with 11 points, and Bernards and Ciara De La O had eight points each. All of De La O’s points came in the fourth quarter with a pair of 3s and a layup.

Clearfield won the third quarter 13-12 and topped the Wasps 12-9 in the final frame, even though Wasatch did not put in its subs until the last minute of the game.

“I wanted to send a message. I want to make the score as competitive as possible; that we could hang with them. We weren’t going to quit and actually work harder when we get down,” Soter said.

Soter said he felt confident in his team’s abilities going forward.

“I thought we would have a hard time guarding them straight man and thought we did a tremendous job of it actually,” he said. “I’m encouraged and think we can defend anyone man to man in this state. I should have trusted them more. Moving forward, I will.”