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Cedar Valley's Daisey Thayne tries to keep the ball away from Bingham's Avery Aiono in a 6A girls basketball quarterfinal game at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Cedar Valley's Presley Whiting handles the ball against Bingham in a 6A girls basketball quarterfinal game at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Bingham's Evy Roberts (3) defends Cedar Valley's Hadley Whiting in a 6A girls basketball quarterfinal game at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Elli Larson, right, and her Cedar Valley teammates react after a 60-57 loss to Bingham in the 6A girls basketball quarterfinals at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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The Cedar Valley girls basketball team’s otherwise inspiring breakthrough season came to a tough end on Wednesday with a 60-57 loss to Bingham in the 6A state quarterfinal round.

Leading throughout, the Aviators were blitzed late by the Miners and ultimately gave up a late lead and never were able to recover.

“We put in a ton of work and uh it was coming there, but I thought Bingham made some good changes there in the fourth quarter and did a great job, so credit to them,” said Cedar Valley coach Kawika Akina.

Leading the way for Cedar Valley in the loss were senior twins Presley and Hadley Whiting, who scored 17 and 11 points, respectively. Fellow senior Ellie Larson chipped in 10 points in what was a great all-around effort for the Aviator seniors, all of whom will be missed tremendously heading into next season.

“Ellie Larson was one of our big vocal leaders out there,” Akina said. “Then Presley and Hadley were kind of our steadying force. So I thought those three had a great year and they’re going to be missed a lot.”

The good news, at least for the coming season, is Cedar Valley’s roster was full of underclassmen who made big contributions this past season. Leading the way for the underclassmen on Wednesday was Daisy Thayne, who scored nine points and handed out four assists and Savannah Klodi, who scored six points and had five assists.

As mentioned, the Aviators led throughout and quickly set the pace with a 17-7 lead after one quarter played. The Miners managed to trim the lead to just six points entering the fourth quarter, and then managed to come all the way back after a made basket at the 2:45 mark to tie things at 51-51.

But Cedar Valley didn’t fold from there, regathered, and had a shot to win it at the buzzer, but ultimately fell short of the attempt.

“It’s a close-knit group of kids that started playing for each other, and you saw that throughout today’s game,” Akina said. “They don’t give up and it was just fun to be around them. We just have great kids.”

Cedar Valley’s season included several high points, which included a buzzer-beating comeback win over rival Westlake, a team that entered the 6A tournament as the No. 1 seed. And the very fact that Akina’s team advanced clear to the quarterfinal round to play at the Huntsman Center is a fact he believes he can build off of.

“I think we got a good group coming back,” he concluded. “We only lose three and I think the younger kids coming up are a good core to build off of. If they’ll be willing to work and and get better, like this year’s team, and I think they will, then we should be back competing again. So the future’s bright here.”