The Taylorsville Warriors were the 49-34 winner over the Brighton Bengals when they last played one another back in February of 2017, but their luck changed this time around. Taylorsville fell to Brighton 58-52. While losing is never fun, Taylorsville can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Utah basketball rankings (they are ranked 64th, while Brighton is ranked 20th).
Despite the loss, Taylorsville had strong showings from Jenna Sterzer, who dropped a double-double on ten points and 15 rebounds, and Marlee Reupena, who scored 17 points along with seven assists and four steals. Reupena scored a full 32.7% of Taylorsville's points, the fifth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Karen Jones, who scored eight points.
Even though they lost, Taylorsville were working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Brighton only racked up seven assists.
Leading Brighton to victory were Olivia Stephens and Sophie Nielsen. Stephens scored 22 points along with five assists, while Nielsen dropped a double-double on 21 points and 11 rebounds. Those 11 rebounds set a new season-high mark for her. Lucy Chin was another key contributor, scoring eight points.
This is the second loss in a row for Taylorsville and nudges their season record down to 4-4. As for Brighton, their win bumped their record up to 6-2.
Taylorsville will head out on the road to face off against Farmington at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Farmington comes in still looking for their first win of the season. Brighton will be home for the holidays to greet Timpanogos at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Timpanogos has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.
