By Steve Pimper
MaxPreps.com
Tiny Tabiona high school is one of the smallest schools in Utah with a total enrollment of less than 150 students. It's also the 2007 girl's Class 1A Basketball Champion.
The Lady Tigers surprised the favored Rich Rebels Saturday night at the Richfield Special Events center by a 51-50 score and claimed their first ever girl's State Basketball Championship in the process.
Tabiona is in only it's 11th year of competing in girl's hoops, but now must clear a place in the school trophy case to display the state's top prize as coach Doug Price and his Lady Tigers earned the trophy the hard way.
After building an early 12-3 advantage, the Tabiona team had to claw for every point as the Lady Rebels of Rich High School went on an 18-8 run to grab a 21-20 halftime lead. The two squads battled basket for basket throughout the second half until Brittani Groll converted the second of two free throws to put Rich on top, 50-48, with just 17 seconds remaining.
Savanna Gines of Tabiona raced down court and found Stacy Stringham on the low blocks and dished off a perfect pass that Stringham put home while being fouled. Stringham knocked down the charity toss, converting the game-winning, three-point play and giving Tabiona the 2007 title.
Tabiona used just five players - each going the full 32 minutes without any substitutions - in the title game. What makes that even more amazing is that these same Lady Tigers made the finals by outlasting Manila High, 50-48, in an emotional, tense overtime game Friday night. That win over the fifth-ranked Manila was also the first time in those 11 years that Tabiona had bested the Lady Mustangs.
Joining Stringham and Gines on this year's championship fabulous five for the Lady Tigers was Kambie Bagley, Whitney Heisman and Skya Defa.
Stringham was named the 1A tournament's Most Valuable Player and was joined by Defa and Gines on the all-tourney team along with Sami Cornelison and Allie Eastman of Rich. Adriana Cordova of Green River and Lacy Larsen of Manila rounded out the elite all-tournament squad.
In the preliminary games to the 1A final Manila dumped Green River, 52-44, for third place thanks to Lacy Larsen's 22 points. Valley's Lady Buffaloes nabbed fifth place with a 40-37 victory over Layton Christian behind Sammi Griffiths' 18 points. The Lady Bobcats of Panguitch finished in seventh place by beating Intermountain Christian, 31-24. Hailey Orton netted 17 for the winners.
Tournament action in the girl's 2A, 3A, 4A and 5A classifications all take place this week at St. George, Cedar City and Salt Lake with four more champions being crowned Saturday night.