POSTREGISTER.COM: Garner returns from injury, leads Bonneville to district title game
This entry was posted on 2/6/2010 3:07 PM and is filed under Girls Basketball News.
Below is an article reprinted from the PostRegister.com:
Garner returns from injury, leads Bonneville to district title game
By zkyle
February 5, 2010
The good news for the Bonneville High School girls basketball team is the Bees advanced to the 4A District 6 championship game after beating the Rigby Trojans 49-34 at home Thursday.
The better news for 22-0 Bonneville is that forward Mailie Garner was back in the starting lineup for the first time since spraining her left ankle Jan. 26.
Though Garner said she was playing at 80 percent, her impact was immediate. The 6-footer shot 11 for 18 from the field for 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and had three steals.
With Rigby bent on shutting down Bonneville’s perimeter attack, Garner had her way on the block, often sealing and spinning away from her defender.
“I felt where she was, then I’d go the other way,” Garner said. “I was thinking more about where my feet were because I didn’t want to hurt my ankle, but it helped me to get around girls.”
Rigby coach Clyde Nelson said he had heard Garner was going to play, but he expected she’d be more limited.
“Last year, we let them shoot from the perimeter, and they hit 13 3s,” Nelson said. “It’s a matter of where you take your poison. We had to hope Mailie wasn’t going to be good tonight, and she was very good.”
Rigby (15-7) has an 11-game winning streak against all opponents other than Bonneville, which beat Rigby for the third time this season.
Nelson said Bonneville has become a mental hurdle as well as a physical one.
“We’ve played so good all year and especially the last little while,” Nelson said. “It’s hard to figure why we’d be so intimidated. There’s no question they are good. We just need to handle their pressure.”
Rigby swapped leads with Bonneville three times in the first quarter and trailed 10-9 entering the second. But Bonneville closed the half on a 6-0 run, capped by a Garner turnaround that beat the buzzer, to take a 25-18 lead into the break.
Bonneville slowly pulled away in the third, and held Rigby to five points in the fourth quarter to win comfortably.
Rigby’s Katelyn Kinghorn was the lone Trojan in double digits with 14 points. Courtney Nield led Rigby with seven rebounds and three steals.
Kylee Searle scored 10 points for Bonneville to go with seven rebounds.
Rigby will host Blackfoot on Saturday in a loser-out game. The winner will face Bonneville on Tuesday at Bonneville High School for the 4A District 6 title.
Bonneville coach Ryan Harrigfeld said he likes how things are shaping up for his team.
“I feel good,” Harrigfeld said. “We’ve got Mailie back, and that’s nice. Rigby is still a good team. Whoever comes out of that game (on Saturday), the nice thing is we get to watch.”
