6A Girls Quarterfinals: Cedar Valley’s otherwise remarkable season comes to a tough end with a loss to Bingham
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.”
5 Lone Peak 44, 4 Mountain Ridge 42
Lave Holdcraft played hero in the late quarterfinal game, knocking down a clutch 3-pointer with 15 seconds left to keep the Knights’ dreams of a fifth straight state title alive.
“I’m just so happy and proud of my team right now,” Holdcraft said. “Words cannot describe how happy I am. I’m glad that my teammates trust me and that just shows how much we care about each other.”
Lone Peak trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half and by six early in the fourth quarter. An 8-0 run, with four points from Peyton Warner, pushed the Knights to their first lead of the game at 39-37 with 3:06 to play.
Mountain Ridge reclaimed the lead at 42-41 when Jessica Maynard scored inside with 53 seconds remaining. On its next possession, Lone Peak brought the ball inbounds from under its own basket with six seconds on the shot clock, getting a pass at the 3-point line to Holdcraft, who sank the shot for a 44-42 lead.
“We knew we needed to get it to someone who can make a play and Lave is surely one of those players for us,” Lone Peak head coach Nancy Warner said. “They left her open and she took that shot confidently. She hits those shots and I’m sure proud of her.”
The Knights (15-10) then survived two Mountain Ridge attempts in the final seconds to claim their spot in Thursday’s semifinals against No. 1 seed Westlake. On Nov. 25, Lone Peak handed the Thunder a 49-41 loss in a non-region game.
“It (making the semifinals) means everything,” Warner said. “This team has been hit with a bunch of adversity this entire season, and I just can’t say enough about how proud I am of them for sticking together and focusing on the right things. It showed in their resilience throughout the game, staying locked into one play at a time and really owning in on their mentality for the next play. It’s not pretty sometimes, but they got the job done.”
Peyton Warner led Lone Peak with 15 points and Holdcraft contributed 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Kaylee Montgomery led Mountain Ridge (17-8) with 21 points and seven rebounds.
1 Westlake 55, 8 Davis 33
The top-seeded Thunder showcased a suffocating defense that held the Darts without a field goal nearly 12 minutes of game time.
Leading 10-7 early in the second quarter, Westlake outscored Davis 14-1, getting two 3-pointers each from Ella Seymore and Mia Foster, to take a 24-8 lead at halftime.
The Thunder stretched their lead to 28 points, 36-8, in the second half before Emma Knight finally broke the long dry spell for the Darts with a basket at the 3:20 mark of the third quarter.
Avery Thompson had a full stat line for Westlake (21-4) with 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and five steals. Foster finished with 14 points and Seymore had 11. The Thunder had nine 3-pointers, with four from Foster and three from Thompson.
Kate Willard topped Davis (16-9) with 17 points.
