Joshua Perry • For The Spectrum & Daily News • Published: February 04. 2011 4:55AM
| CEDAR CITY - With the Hurricane girls basketball team on the verge of letting a win slip through its grasp, guard Carly Stratton took control.
She helped the Tigers hold off Canyon View and tightened up the Region 9 title race Thursday night with a 55-53 victory on the road.
The Tigers led by as many as 15 points early in the fourth quarter, but that lead had evaporated as the Falcons fought back to tie the game.
Canyon View's full court inbound lob was intercepted by Stratton with 5.7 seconds remaining. The junior raced down the court and drew a foul on Falcon guard Aubree Lyman with 1.7 seconds left.
Stratton calmly stepped to the line and hit the two free throws to secure the win for the Tigers.
Stratton said she had just one thing going through her mind during the free throw attempts.
"Relax," she said.
The win moved Hurricane to within a half game of the Falcons' Region 9 lead as the team moved to 7-2 in region play and 11-5 overall. Canyon View dropped to 14-4 and 8-2 in region following the loss.
"That is a huge win," Hurricane coach Shelly Thomas said. "We knew we could play with them if we came in here and gave them our top game."
Stratton agreed with Thomas on the importance of the win.
"It puts us in the driver's seat (for the region title)," Stratton said.
Forward Whitney Imlay scored a team-high 16 points for Hurricane, while Stratton and guard Angela Shields added 14 apiece.
Shields also grabbed eight rebounds and had five steals - four in the first half before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Forward Tori McGrath led the Falcons, scoring 23 points and grabbing six rebounds in the losing effort.
Canyon View had the advantage early in the game jumping out to a 10-7 lead after the first quarter, with McGrath scoring eight in the frame.
Hurricane countered in the second quarter when Shields stole the ball at midcourt and went in for the layup to give Hurricane its first lead of the game at 15-14.
The Tigers went on a 14-4 run in the quarter with Imlay contributing eight of her 16 points during the spurt.
Falcon guard Kenzie Evans hit a jump shot with two seconds remaining in the half to trim the Tigers' lead to 22-18 heading into the break. Evans finished with eight points off the bench for Canyon View.
The Falcons came out of the break and tied the game three times, but were never able to regain the lead.
Hurricane closed the quarter on a 14-1 run that appeared to put the game out of reach.
The Tigers let their foot off the gas in the fourth allowing Canyon View to trim the lead down to three points. Then freshman guard Josie Platt hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 53-53 with 23.5 seconds to play.
Hurricane turned the ball over with 5.7 seconds left - which Canyon View promtply reciprocated - to set the stage for Stratton's heroics.
DESERT HILLS 43, SNOW CANYON 36: Ashlee Moser scored a game-high 12 points, including three key free throws in the fourth quarter as the Thunder (3-6, 8-10) won their second straight Region 9 game.
Desert Hills' Krista Anderson scored six of her seven points in the fourth quarter as well to secure the victory.
Amy Harris and Bailey Bundy each scored eight points for the Warriors (5-5, 8-10).
CEDAR 44, DIXIE 25: The Lady Reds got another total team performance in a win over the Flyers.
Rachel Nakken and Tara Shipp each scored seven points to lead Cedar (8-2, 14-5).
Elizabeth Thompson led the Flyers (1-8, 6-11) with 14 points.
ENTERPRISE 47, PAROWAN 28: The Wolves' win secures the Region 13 title and a No. 1 seed for the 2A state playoffs.
Summer Terry led the wining effort with eight points, five assists and three steals. What made the difference in this game was Enterprise's 27-11 run in the middle quarters that put the game out of reach.
The Wolves improved to 8-0 Region 13, 18-1 overall.
Chennin Benson's 12 points led the Rams (3-6, 9-9).
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