Westlake’s Jada Willis and Lone Peak’s Sarah Bartholomew reach for the ball during a 6A girls quarterfinal basketball game at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. Lone Peak won 59-50.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
In the final three minutes of Lone Peak’s 6A quarterfinal win over Westlake on Monday, senior Sarah Bartholomew almost single-handedly carried her team to the 59-50 win.
Between her momentum-swinging blocked shot, two key offensive rebounds and seven points down the stretch, the senior was absolutely clutch when it mattered most as she finished with a career-high 21 points to go along with her 10 rebounds.
“I think she really took that to heart and stepped up for us better, particularly in that fourth quarter,” said Lone Peak coach Nancy Warner, whose team advances to Wednesday’s semifinal at 4:40 p.m. against the Corner Canyon-Davis winner.
Without Bartholomew’s performance, the Knights’ quest for a 6A 3-peat might’ve ended prematurely.
Lone Peak led for all but 30 seconds in Monday’s game and really started to open things up in the third quarter to build a 50-35 lead heading into the fourth.
In the fourth though, things started to unravel quickly for Lone Peak. Aided by back-to-back 3-pointers from Chloe Jensen, as well as an uncharacteristic four straight turnovers for Lone Peak, Westlake ripped off a 13-1 run, cutting the lead to 51-48 with 4:01 remaining.
Warner fully expected Westlake to put up a great fight in the quarterfinal regardless of the fact her team won the two Region 3 meetings by 18 and 23 points.
“In the state tournament you’ve got to expect everyone’s best game and that’s exactly what Westlake was gonna give us, and we knew it and I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be in this situation like that to really get tested like that,” said Warner.
Bartholomew could hear the crowd getting behind underdog Westlake as it quickly capitalized on Lone Peak’s miscues to cut the lead to three, and she was having none of it.
“In my mind I was like, ‘No this isn’t happening today. This is our game,’” she said.
Bartholomew helped wrestle momentum back for Lone Peak as she blocked a Westlake baseline jumper with 2:54 remaining that could’ve potentially tied the game.
At the other end she hit a jumper to push the lead to 53-48.
“It’s always a game of momentum swings and with the block, that’s a huge momentum swing,” said Bartholomew.
She wasn’t done. She scored on a rebound putback on Lone Peak’s next possession to extend the lead to 55-48, and two possessions later she did the exact same thing on another rebound putback, getting fouled in the process, and finishing off the 3-point play for the 58-50 lead with 1:00 remaining.
“Just love fighting and maybe not how we wanted it to go but it was a great fight and we always love games where we get to battle with them,” said Bartholomew, who believes the experience gained from some of her team’s tight games this year prepared her for those clutch moments.
To go along with Bartholomew’s career high, Shawnee Nordstrom added 16 points, with Naia Tanuvase adding 10.
Jensen led Westlake in the loss with 16 points, with Austyn Feller adding a dozen.