The Alta Hawks will face off against the West Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Alta comes in on five and West on 11.
It was a Battle of the Birds when Alta faced off against Skyline on Tuesday. Alta took down Skyline 62-47. The Hawks pushed the score to 51-28 by the end of the third, a deficit the Eagles cut but never quite recovered from.
| 01/07/25 vs Skyline | 25 |
| 12/06/24 vs Provo | 17 |
| 11/21/23 @ Murray | 17 |
| 11/26/24 @ Green Canyon | 16 |
| 11/19/24 @ Granger | 14 |
It was another big night for Quincy Kegel, who went 11 of 23 on her way to 25 points along with seven boards and four steals. The dominant performance gave her a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Alia Baldassano, who posted 13 points in addition to six assists and five boards.
Alta smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive rebounds in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, West hadn't done well against Brighton recently (they were 0-3 in their previous three matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Tuesday. West enjoyed a cozy 63-44 win over Brighton. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Utah basketball rankings (they are ranked second, while the Bengals are ranked 49th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Alta better focus on containing Kylee Falatea and Fina Tuha as the pair were huge in West's win. Falatea dropped a double-double on 29 points and ten rebounds, while Tuha dropped a double-double on 12 points and 11 rebounds. Falatea has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last 30 times she's played. Another player making a difference was Kaydence Falatea, who put up five points in addition to seven boards and four steals.
West pushed their record up to 11-0 with the victory, which was their eighth straight on the road dating back to last season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 69.5 points per game. As for Alta, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 8-5 record this season.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Alta has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 30.8 boards per game. However, it's not like West struggles in that department as they've been averaging 59.4 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Alta was taken down by West 65-38 in their previous meeting back in February of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Falatea, who dropped a triple-double on 24 points, ten assists, and 11 steals. Now that Alta knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
