Lady Jayhawks make school history by taking first state basketball championship

Courtesy photo/Katie Berry

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The Saint Joseph Catholic High School girls basketball team pulled out a 45-34 victory over defending champions Rich High School to take the 2012 Utah State 1-A Basketball Championship. 

By Katie Berry, Emily Brandt and Carrera Brown

Special to the Intermountain Catholic

OGDEN — The 2011-2012 Saint Joseph Catholic High School girls’ basketball team accomplished something that has evaded every other SJCHS basketball team in the school’s near 70-year history by winning the Utah State 1-A Basketball Championship.

The win came Feb. 18 in Richfield as the Jayhawks surprised a heavily favored Rich High School team 45-34 in the final round of the championship tournament.

The road to State for the Lady Jayhawks was a difficult one. After a 18-4 season that included a motivating win over Jordan High School – a 5-A program with a student parking lot larger than the Saint Joseph campus came the lowest part of the season, a devastating 37-point loss to Rich High School just a few weeks before the state tournament. The girls’ confidence was crushed, and the Lady Jayhawks entered the state tournament with some predicting they would be sent back home to Ogden after their first-round game against Milford

But each girl dug deep and the team won four straight games in the state tournament. The first game against Milford was close because of a comeback by Milford in the second half of the game. The Lady Jayhawks pulled through, winning 29-23.

After that first game, the team’s energy increased as the tournament progressed. The girls went on, beating Manila 51-23 in the quarterfinal game and Piute 63-41 in the semi-finals. This put them against Rich High School, which had crushed nearly all of their regular-season opponents – including the Jayhawks – with ease.

With the St. Joseph team’s hard work, plus some ingenuity on the part of Coach Joe Cravens, they were able to handle the Lady Rebels, the defending 1A state champions, with a resounding 11-point difference, 45-34, to claim the state title.

Just making it to the finals of the 1A state tournament was momentous for the Lady Jays. The best finish of any team at State, male or female, in SJCHS history was fourth place.

Knowing they had made school history lifted some of the pressure off the team as they went through the state tournament, but it was their heart and burning determination that led them to refuse to settle. Backed by great support from parents, coaches, and a spirited student body watching back home, the girls pulled off one of the greatest upsets ever at the Sevier Valley Center with impressive statistics: Katie Berry scored 19 points (she was later selected as tournament MVP), Katie Panuschka had 18, and the team had a 100 percent shooting percentage from the free-throw line.