Bronco girls get first round win in state tournament but fall in second round

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
With an upset win over Enterprise in the final week of the regular season the San Juan High School girls basketball team earned the #15 seed in the 2A Utah State Girls Basketball Tournament and a home game in the first round.
The Gunnison Valley Bulldogs came to Blanding on Wednesday, February 15 for that first-round matchup, and it was a fun, back-and-forth affair that the Broncos led for the majority of the time.
San Juan opened with a strong first quarter and built an 11-6 lead in front of their home crowd. But Gunnison rallied in the second quarter to outscore the Broncos 12-8 and pull to within one point.
The Bulldogs took their only lead of the game early in the third quarter when they scored to go up 20-19. San Juan came on to outscore them 13-7 for the rest of the frame and take a 32-27 lead into the final quarter.
The Broncos kept their foot on the gas to dominate the fourth quarter 16-8 and take the win 48-35, advancing to the round of 16.
But it was a tough draw in the second round. The girls came up against the #2 North Summit Braves and were forced to make the nearly 350-mile trip to Coalville to play on Saturday, February 18.
San Juan fought valiantly, but the Wolves were just too much. North Summit built an 18-5 lead in the first quarter, extended it to 34-14 at the half, and cruised to a 64-45 win in the second half.
The Bronco girls can hold their heads high after an excellent season that had its share of upheaval. In his first year Head Coach Kade Palmer led the team to a 6-18 overall record. The girls were 1-9 in 2A Region 19 play.
Senior Serina Yanito led the team in scoring this season with 307 points in 24 games, an impressive average of 12.8 per game. Junior Synessa Atcitty scored 218 points for an average of 9.1 per game.
Senior Kaeah Howard had 193 points this season (8.0 ppg), junior Shaylin Nez poured in 106 (4.4 ppg), and senior Adriana Johnson had 74 (3.1 ppg) to round out the top five.
Freshman Averie Gilson contributed 36 points to the San Juan offense this season, sophomore Hayden Shumway scored 35, sophomore Paige Bitsouie got 32, freshman Kaidence Mitchell scored 23, and sophomore Macee Palmer added 15.
Atcitty led the team with 24 threes on the year. Yanito hit 21, Nez got 20, Howard contributed 15, Gilson scored three, Brittney Lansing added a couple, and Bitsoui and C’ona Dandy added one apiece.
Following the conclusion of the season, Coach Palmer offered a few thoughts on the season. “I had a lot of fun coaching these girls this year,” he wrote.
“They are an amazing group of young women. The improvement they were able to achieve from the first week of November until now was more than I thought possible.
“They worked really hard and put up with me as I learned and had to try and figure things out as well. They never gave up and kept working hard all year long.
“Thanks to all their hard work the program is definitely rolling in the right direction. The girls who will be coming back are excited and ready to kick off season training come April.
“We are sure going to miss the seniors and their talent, work ethic, and leadership, but they have given a great example to the younger girls and I’m sure we will have girls excited and capable to step up and fill the roles that will need to be filled.
“It didn’t end the way we were hoping but we gave some of the best teams in 2A everything they could handle and had some of the best coaches flustered and struggling to figure out what to do to stop us.”