Alta High School senior Fui Niumeitolu cuts down the nets on Tuesday after the Hawks beat Alta 48-47 to clinch the Region 6 championship.
James Edward
Box score
From zero wins to 19 wins and a region championship.
Alta’s girls basketball team completed a remarkable turnaround this season, highlighted Tuesday night by a 48-47 win over Brighton to clinch the outright Region 6 championship and finish the regular season with a 19-3 record.
Not bad for a program that went 0-22 last season.
“They came from a losing season last year to play so hard to the point that they can win a region championship. That’s a huge turnaround,” said Alta coach Julie Larsen. “Overall, I think it’s just the mentality of these kids and their work ethic.”
Alta senior Fui Niumeitolu clinched the victory for the Hawks by sinking two free throws with 2.5 seconds remaining after she was fouled driving to the lane.
The all-stater at Jordan High the past two seasons finished the game with 27 points — including 13 of her team’s 15 points in the fourth quarter.
“Fui is incredible. She comes in every day and plays hard. She gets better every single day. She wants to get better. She wants to make her team better. That’s a special kid,” said Larsen.
Niumeitolu’s arrival allowed first-year coach Larsen to get a quick buy-in from all the returning players, and the team has been racking up wins ever since.
Alta hit a bit of a speed bump last week with a surprising 65-38 loss to West three weeks after beating the Panthers by 20 points, but it quickly regrouped to beat Olympus and Brighton to clinch the region title.
“I think it’s all about us at this point. If we play hard, play our game I think we’ll be fine regardless. You’re always going to have games where you come out and don’t play your best, but I think moving forward it’s all about our team and how well we can play together,” said Larsen, whose team will learn its playoff fate this weekend when the 5A state tournament pairings are announced with the final RPI rankings are released.
Quincy Kegel added seven points in the win for Alta, with Aolele Liava’a chipping in six.
Sophie Nielsen led Brighton with 14 points, including seven in the fourth quarter as the Bengals nearly completed a stunning comeback despite trailing by 10 points in the final three and a half minutes.
Both teams struggled finishing their chances at the rim throughout the game in what was a tight battle for most of the night with neither team leading by more than four points in the second and third quarters.
Alta started to pull away in the fourth, opening the quarter on a 9-2 to run to stretch the lead to 42-31 on a Niumeitolu 3-pointer at the 4:51 mark.
Brighton responded with buckets at the other end by Nielsen and Lucy Chin, but Niumeitolu matched them to keep the lead at double-digits, 46-36, with 3:30 left.
The Bengals got a spark though when Taylor Workman drained a 3-pointer with 2:18 remaining, trimming the lead to 46-39.
After a defensive stop, Brighton benefitted from a wild sequence that was realistically a six-point play.
Ruth Larsen converted a contested layup that whittled the lead to five, and a few seconds later Alta was whistled for a technical foul with Nielsen draining two free throws.
The technical foul gave Brighton possession as well, with Nielsen scoring at the rim to complete a 9-0 run over a span of 44 seconds.
“Three-point shots, that’s what happens. 3-pointers are a big deal,” said Larsen.
Brighton got another defensive stop, and then tied the game 46-46 at the other end as Charlotte O’Neal made one of two free throws.
After another stop defensively — its fifth straight — Brighton took the lead as Chin sank one of two free throws for the 47-46 lead with 10.9 seconds remaining, its first lead since 25-24 early in the second half.
Larsen called a timeout, and the game plan was simple, get the ball in Niumeitolu’s hands and get her going downhill toward the basket.
“It was kind of iso and let her do what she needed to do, and she did what she needed to do. She got to exactly the spot she needed and she got fouled fortunately, and she took care of the rest,” said Larsen.
Niumeitolu was fouled in the lane and calmly made both free throws with 2.5 seconds remaining, finishing the game 10 for 10 from the line.
“She’s an incredible free throw shooter. She works hard on it. She feels comfortable at the line, and she feels comfortable with the pressure,” said Larsen of her star.
The line was a key factor in the Hawks’ triumph, as they made 14 of 16 with Brighton only making 12 of 20, including going 1 of 2 on seven different trips.
Brighton’s Workman came inches away from winning the game at the buzzer as her three-quarter court heave hit the backboard and bounced off the side of the rim.