Girls basketball playoffs: Syracuse solves Skyridge but shooting goes cold in 36-33 loss
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- Syracuse’s Cortnie Barker, left, tries to shoot against Skyridge in the 6A quarterfinals Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in Salt Lake City.
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- Syracuse and Skyridge players converge on a held ball in the 6A quarterfinals Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in Salt Lake City.
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- Syracuse guard Grace Thomas, right prepares to shoot against Skyridge players Merceius Mili (23) and Cambree Blackham (5) in the 6A quarterfinals Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in Salt Lake City.
SALT LAKE CITY — The year-to-year comparisons were hard to ignore.
Syracuse High girls basketball drew a 6A quarterfinal rematch with Skyridge late Monday at the Huntsman Center, nearly one year to the day from the quarterfinal that saw No. 2 Skyridge trounce No. 10 Syracuse 52-34 in the Dee Events Center.
The Titans simply couldn’t handle the Skyridge press that night one year ago and Avery Sanders going 5 of 5 from the 3-point line couldn’t help her team keep up.
Syracuse returned four starters from that game, went 18-5 and challenged for the Region 1 title before acquiescing to Davis, and arrived as 6A’s No. 4 seed against No. 12 Skyridge, a talented bunch trending upward with the return of some players from injury. The Falcons were 10-10 before winning three straight ahead of the Monday matchup.
The teams looked evenly matched for most of the night, with the margin never growing larger than eight on either side and a total of 10 ties and six lead changes from start to finish.
Syracuse was up to the task this time, handling Skyridge’s defensive pressure with confidence throughout the second half while simultaneously forcing the Falcons into 10 turnovers in the third quarter alone with a swarming zone of its own.
But the Titans learned how cruel the game can be, doing nearly everything right to beat Skyridge except make the open shots they worked so patiently to get.
So the process was entirely different than one year ago, but the final result still saw Skyridge celebrate — this year a 36-33, rock-fight victory, while sending the Titans to a similar, tear-filled end as their Region 1 counterpart Davis earlier Monday evening.
“I thought we were prepared. I thought our energy level and intensity was there,” Syracuse coach Braden Hamblin said. “And man, sometimes it just comes down to a few shots have got to go in for you, and they didn’t.
“Hats off to Skyridge. They got healthy at the right time, they’ve got some great players and coaches over there.”
Cortnie Barker led Syracuse (18-6) with 16 points. Maylee Anderson had seven points, while Cami King pitched in four points with a game-high nine rebounds. Anderson, King and Olivia Sorensen each totaled three steals.
Syracuse ultimately shot just 6 of 24 in the second half and 1 of 14 from distance for the game.
Skyridge used a small run across halftime to take a 24-18 lead with 5:55 left in the third quarter. But, after 13 first-half turnovers largely in the half court, the Titans patiently handled the Skyridge defense in the third, whether it was a full-court or extended half-court zone.
Barker scored three of her team’s six second-half field goals near the rim to break the press, and it was a King jumper to break pressure that ended the third quarter with the score 29-29.
“Our girls knew coming in that the game was going to boil down to, are we going to look that (defensive pressure) in the face and handle it well, and I thought we did,” Hamblin said.
The two teams nearly got midway through the fourth quarter before either scored. Syracuse worked an open corner jumper, two layup attempts and a free-throw line jump shot as Skyridge tried an extended trap zone, and missed them all. Barker finally broke the deadlock with a rebound putback to put Syracuse up 31-29 with 4:20 left.
Barker, who shot 7 of 10, scored one last press-break bucket in the paint for her team’s final points and for a 33-31 lead with 3:48 remaining.
It was fittingly Cambree Blackham who turned that deficit into a lead for Skyridge, converting drives on her team’s next two possessions for a 35-33 advantage. She finished with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Syracuse missed its final five field goal attempts, including two open corner 3s and, after a timeout with 9.9 seconds left, a Sanders miss at the buzzer.
As it was, Barker and Blackham combined to shoot 14 of 21, while all other Titans and Falcons combined were 14 of 61. Sanders and Skyridge guard Shae Toole hit eight 3-pointers combined in last year’s quarterfinal but the teams combined were 2 of 21 from distance Monday.
“Part of the message was that it’s about the journey and this pain will pass for these girls, eventually,” Hamblin said. “And then they’ll remember the good times, the memories of how we even got here in this long stretch. I’m proud of them and I love them … I was a little bit at a loss, I wasn’t exactly prepared to give that speech yet.
“It stung and it hurts, but we can … look back on the season and all the ups and downs we overcame as a team to get to this point. I’m proud of our effort, we just came up a little short.”