Net, then nog: Bagby floater crosses Ogden off West Field’s list 46-44 to kick off holiday break
Longhorns notch fifth win in low-scoring dogfight with 3A Tigers
-
- West Field’s Kennedee Soloman drives around Ogden’s Lauretta Taukiuvea during a nonregion girls basketball contest on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- Ogden’s Megan Beus drives down the floor during a nonregion girls basketball contest at West Field on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- Ogden’s Juliet Knowles steers away from West Field’s Kenzie Bagby during a nonregion girls basketball game on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- West Field coach Rick Stoeckl looks on during a nonregion girls basketball game against Ogden on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- West Field’s Brinley Bigelow defends a shot by Ogden’s Juliet Knowles during a nonregion girls basketball contest on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- Ogden’s Hazel Nadolski wins the tipoff during a nonregion girls basketball contest at West Field on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- West Field’s Kennedee Soloman, middle, swings the ball away from Ogden’s Hazel Nadolski, left, and Jill Wood, right, during a nonregion girls basketball contest against Ogden on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- West Field’s Kenzie Bagby reacts to a turnover call during a nonregion girls basketball game against Ogden on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor.
-
- Ogden’s Salote Tonga, right, is jubilant following a timeout during a nonregion girls basketball game at West Field on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Taylor
TAYLOR – It’s hard to win basketball games without your best set of hands on the floor, and West Field found facing that very reality in a one-possession game Ogden at home on Friday.
Longhorns senior center Kylee Mueller, already playing with a protective face guard, went down with an apparent shoulder injury midway through the third quarter, shortly after freshman Kenzie Bagby gave West Field its first lead of the night a minute into the second half.
Unsure of his star big’s status, West Field coach Rick Stoeckl green lighted Mueller when his 5-foot-11 senior returned to the sideline from the locker room with 2:30 to go. She’d drill two key free throws late, followed by a Rylee Andreasen 3-pointer to lead 44-42 with 14 seconds left.
Ogden senior Megan Beus produced a game-tying jumper at the other end, but left the four seconds Andreasen needed to spot Bagby at the other end for an overtime-killing floater for a 46-44 stunner at the bell and West Field’s fifth win of the season.
“I was just trying to get to the basket and maybe draw a foul,” Bagby said. “I got her on the pump fake and I was open.”
A win greater, West Field (5-5) walks into the holiday break with a confidence-booster against another hungry, local foe in Ogden (5-6) on Friday night.
The Longhorns have won two straight since Dec. 17 at Grantsville (another narrow win, 60-59).
“We’re just learning how to win,” Stoeckl said. “We’re becoming more experienced and older and making good decisions. I think we had too many turnovers, I don’t think it should’ve been as close as it was but we had too many turnovers and we need to fix that.”
Mueller’s role is hard to fill, too.
West Field’s go-to name in the paint, Mueller commands a team-high 12.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per night.
“It takes away our leading scorer and one of our leading rebounders – it’s scary,” Stoeckl said. “It just shows her toughness. She wanted to come back and she made two big free throws.”
Plagued by turnovers throughout the night, West Field improved its ball movement just enough for a Andreasen (10 points) to spy two 3-pointers down the stretch. Bagby (13 points) and Mueller (13 points) lead their team and the floor in a low-scoring effort by both sides.
Andreasen, spotlighted by Stoeckl postgame, added another 10 points all in the second half. Kennedee Soloman and Kali Ercanbrack combined for four points.
“She’s coming into her own,” Stoeckl said of Andreason. “I told her earlier, ‘You need to start looking for your shot. They’re leaving you open.’ Then they hit that 3 at the block, which was a big basket and then one at the block to give us the lead. She’s our senior leader, so she’s our point guard and I just want her to be more proactive in trying to find shots.”
Opening the night with an 8-0 run, Ogden never returned to its first-quarter production of 16 points spread across five different Tigers.
“The girls played their hearts out,” Ogden coach Andy Blodgett said. “We had a lot of open looks and we took them. That was the game plan: take an open 3-point shot and get the rebound. We could’ve used a a couple more 3s to hit, but they will in the future having the right shooters shooting.”
Beus (nine points) and senior post Salote Tonga (nine points), leading the road scoring, found multiple looks early, but Ogden hardly found the rim enough to sustain its early lead. Six second-quarter points by West Field sophomore Meleah Conger (six points) and another five by Mueller made for a meager 22-21 Tigers lead at halftime.
Beus and Knowles hit both of the Tigers’ final 3-point jumpers in the third quarter, and saw a one-possession lead evaporate atop the fourth quarter with five fourth-quarter points by Andreason keeping Ogden on its heels right down to the final, two-minute sequence.
“I think we just had more determination,” Bagby said. “We realized we actually had to score more than we were before. (Mueller) did really good rebounding and came back after hurting her arm and still played well. You’ll be afraid to do some things, but you’ve just got to fight through it.”
Ogden would strike behind the arc just four times, and sophomore Hazel Nadolski (eight points) ended up the only Tiger to record a basket in all four frames. Sophomore Juliet Knowles dropped eight more points off the bench, senior Lauretta Taukiuvea added six; freshmen Kaydree Crowther and Millie Nadolski chipped in two points apiece.
Blodgett came away impressed with another staunch defensive performance, especially from Hazel Nadolski in controlling the pass game, but hoped they’d chased in far more of those stops at the other end.
“She’s so long she probably has a 6-foot-5 wingspan,” Blodgett said of Nadolski. “She just takes care of that middle and no team knows how to go against it. It’s pretty amazing. She gets deflections, they have bad passes and I haven’t looked at the stats, but if you look at the 3-point percentage we probably shot less than 10% and that’s normal for us.”
Both squads return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 30: Ogden travels to Juab and West Field opens region play at Box Elder.
Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.
High School Sports
Net, then nog: Bagby floater crosses Ogden off West Field’s list 46-44 to kick off holiday break
Former Northern Utah teammates Potter, Trujillo reunited at Utah Tech, ready for game at Weber State
