The Grand County High School boys and girls basketball teams each went 0-2 versus their Region 15 rivals from the Sevier Valley as the girls played at home versus South Sevier on Friday, Jan. 11, and versus Richfield on Saturday, Jan. 12, while the boys played on the road versus the same teams.
The Grand County High School (GCHS) Lady Red Devils lost 57-28 to the Lady Rams, scoring only a single point in the first quarter before mustering any degree of scoring. Saturday, they didn’t fare any better, falling 72-22 to the Lady Wildcats, while failing to score double digits in any of the four quarters.
Senior Veda Gritts led GCHS in scoring in both contests, with 11 points on Friday and seven on Saturday. Senior Mercedes Zunich scored nine on Friday and seven on Saturday. Versus the Lady Wildcats, GCHS hit only eight field goals to Richfield’s 31.
GCHS girls basketball coach Randy Martin said the Lady Red Devils played better than the score suggests, especially missing leading scorer Hannah Owen with an injury.
“We just couldn’t score,” he said. “We got good shots; we just couldn’t hit anything. The funny thing is that a month ago during our five-game winning streak, those same shots were going in.”
The Red Devil boys lost in lopsided fashion to South Sevier on Friday, losing 71-49 after falling behind in a disastrous second quarter, in which they were outscored 22-8.
“We had a terrible second quarter,” GCHS boys basketball coach Scott Horton said. “We just had too many turnovers. At one point, there were probably five or six possessions in a row we turned the ball over without getting a shot off.”
The following day, GCHS played much closer versus Richfield, but lost 56-49. Senior Cameron Hoppensteadt was the leading scorer and rebounder in both games, with 16 and 11 on Friday, and 15 and 12 on Saturday. No other Red Devil had more than four rebounds in either contest.
“Rebounding has been a problem for us,” Horton said. “We’ve been out-rebounded in just about every game this season. When you’ve got multiple 6’4” and 6’5” guys, you should be able to get rebounds. We’ve definitely got to do a better job.”
The girls also hosted Emery on Tuesday, Jan. 15, losing 68-25, while the boys were scheduled to visit the Spartans on Wednesday, Jan. 16.
Both GCHS basketball teams are scheduled to play San Juan in the coming week. The girls were scheduled to play on Friday, Jan. 18, but because of a scheduling conflict on San Juan’s end, the game was moved to Tuesday, Jan. 22. The boys host the Broncos on Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 7 p.m.
Martin said San Juan accidentally scheduled both of its basketball teams to have home games on the same night. He said the original plan was to play the boys game in the high school gym and the girls game in the middle school gym, before deciding to change the date of the girls game instead.
“Tuesday works out better for us,” Martin said. “We’ve got a couple girls hurt. Hopefully we’ll get back to full strength and get back on track.”
Owen, who was injured in practice on Jan. 3, has missed the first four games of region play.
“Hannah Owen is such a big part of what we do on both sides of the ball, and with an extra four days to heal, hopefully we’ll have her back for this game.”
With a week between games, Horton said the Red Devil boys plan to regroup and get back to basics.
“It’ll give us time to get back to work on things like rebounding and free throw shooting,” he said. “The good thing with region is you get to play everyone twice. It might be a completely different story when they play us here.”
When: Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 7 p.m
Where: Grand County High School gymnasium, 608 S. 400 East
Boys fall to 1-3, girls drop to 0-5 after two weeks of Region 15 play
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