Girls basketball: Slow start dooms Ogden 46-23 in region visit with South Summit
Coach says mental woes disturbing Tigers offense
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- Ogden junior Jill Wood (51) lets one fly from the 3-point line during a home game against South Summit on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden junior Salote Tonga (10) leans into South Summit’s Emma Broadbent to find the basket during a game Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden senior Macy Vine (21) looks past South Summit senior Taya Rose (32) during a home game Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Left to right: Ogden sophomore Lily Gonzalez, senior Macy Vine and junior Julia Draper check in at the scorer’s table during a home game against South Summit on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Ogden.
OGDEN — Ogden girls basketball’s late-season slope becomes even slicker after falling to South Summit at home 46-23 on Tuesday night, a fourth consecutive loss.
Little worked from the onset as the Tigers (7-13, 1-6 Region 13) struggled to win rebounds and buckets alike in the first half. The Wildcats (14-6, 5-2) relied on Emma Broadbent and Mariah Bowen’s combined 32 points to bury Ogden from the field.
No Tiger breached double figures, with senior Macy Vine (nine points) and junior Jill Wood (seven) leading an offense that finished just 8 of 56 from the field. Freshman Hazel Nadolski added all four of her points in the first half, junior Salote Tonga penciled in two points in the third quarter and junior Ashley Davis tacked on a late free throw.
With three games to go, Ogden head coach Andy Blodgett said his group must seek some sort of confidence shooting the basketball before they can make any noise.
“I think it got in their heads, it’s a mental thing,” Blodgett said. “Especially in women’s basketball, you can only play defense for so long. That’s two games now where we’ve gotten the shots we wanted and they just aren’t doing it.”
The first team in the turnover column, Ogden found themselves on the run, down 11-2 early as five Wildcats struck from the field in the first quarter. Wood and Nadolski scored five unanswered to end the first with the Tigers clawing at a 10-point deficit through eight minutes.
Tightening up, Ogden allowed a single field goal through the first three minutes of the second quarter but second-chance struggles worsened on the other end as the Tigers searched desperately for a rhythm before halftime. Instead, Nadolski claimed all of Ogden’s second-quarter production with another layup and South Summit hung a 23-9 lead on their hosts by halftime.
Asked about the Tigers’ first-half struggles, Vine shared her coach’s perspective about her team’s on-court confidence and feeling bogged down by South Summit’s early onslaught.
“We’ve been stressing (about) finishing offensively,” Vine said. “Executing them right, finishing them; I think early in the game, missing a few shots got us out of it and halftime too, just keeping our energy up was tough.”
Ogden returned to the third quarter with a few more answers, including a Vine 3-pointer and a pair of two-pointers by Wood and Tonga, but the Wildcats found their share of success too. Together, Broadbent and Bowen doubled South Summit’s second-quarter output to lead Ogden by 17 heading into the fourth quarter.
Letting things slip away, Ogden saw just one more field goal, logged by Wood, during the fourth quarter. Broadbent called her game-high, 20-point performance by dropping eight in the fourth quarter.
Until Ogden can generate a palpable buzz offensively, Blodgett said it’ll be a continued grind as the calendar shifts to February. Still, the head coach believes the blueprint to improvement is very much alive with this team heading into the final stretch.
“We gotta see that ball go through the hoop,” Blodgett said. “We have the right sets and the right schemes, it’s just that patience. … I’ll tell ya, if you come to one of our practices, we just shoot, shoot and shoot — we’re trying to turn these girls into shooters.”
Ogden travels to Ben Lomond on Thursday for a rematch of the Tigers’ lone region win earlier this month. Likewise, the Scots (2-15) are searching for their first region win and a bright spot heading into the postseason.
BOX SCORE
South Summit 17 6 12 11 — 46
Ogden High 7 2 9 5 — 23
SHS (46): Broadbent 20, Bowen 12, Rose 6, M. Woolstenhulme 4, Clegg 3, E. Woolstenhulme 1.
OHS (23): Vine 9, Wood 7, Nadolski 4, Tonga 2, Davis 1.
Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.
