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The Pleasant Grove girls basketball team celebrates winning the 5A state championship at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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The Pleasant Grove girls basketball team celebrates winning the 5A state championship at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove junior Janiece Sikander goes up for a shot during the 5A state championship game against West at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove head coach Angela Villa cuts down the net after winning the 5A state championship game against West at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove players pose for a photo with the title trophy after winning the 5A state championship game against West at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove players pose for photo after winning the 5A state championship game against West at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove players celebrate after winning the 5A state championship game against West at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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SALT LAKE CITY — Turns out the kids are right: There ain’t no party like a PG party.

That familiar chant at Pleasant Grove athletic events was in full swing Friday afternoon before, during and after the Vikings won the school’s first-ever girls basketball state title with a 45-30 victory against West at the Huntsman Center.

Recovering from a slow start, Pleasant Grove took a 12-9 lead early in the second quarter on a 3-pointer from Aaliyah Sikander and slowly pulled away.

When Tabi Clark lobbed the ball into Sutton Villa for a layup with 2:18 to play and Zuri Nordstrom followed with a long 3-point make, first-year PG head coach Angela Villa pumped her fist and screamed into the air.

“I mean, the scoreboard says it all,” Clark said. “We pulled through. We didn’t listen to the fans (chanting “overrated”) We knew who we are. We didn’t panic. We just took deep breaths and did our thing.”

Coach Villa’s initial foray as a head coach couldn’t have been more storybook: Not only a state championship but an undefeated (27-0) season.

“I honestly don’t have words for how this season went,” Villa said. “I knew they were talented, and I knew I had an idea of what I wanted to do with this talent. It was to just teach them how to play ball. With all the structured basketball girls play, they don’t get the opportunity to just play and that was a big goal of mine, to restore the fun back in this game for PG. So doing that, combined with their talent and their just constant pursuit of being great, it set me up for the most incredible first year. I don’t know how to even talk about topping it after this, it was awesome.”

West (25-2), playing in its second straight state championship game after finishing as the runner-up to Bountiful last season, is a terrifically athletic team led by University of Oregon commit Kylee Falatea. Defensively, the Panthers took away some of the things that had been successful for Pleasant Grove all year long.

Junior point guard Janiece Sikander — all 5-foot-3 of her — took the load on her shoulders and turned in an incredible performance. Her stat line (21 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and only one turnover in nearly 31 minutes) only tells part of what she did for her team on the biggest stage.

“I saw it in her eyes — on the bus, in the locker room,” Coach Villa said. “Janiece is the type of kid, she’s not going to let you down. She’s just that way. In the locker room, she just had this crazy, fiery look. I was like, ‘Oh, she’s ready.’ Janiece was in full control. All she did today, it was unreal. It was fabulous.”

Sikander was 5 of 6 from the field, 2 of 3 from the 3-point line and 9 of 10 from the foul line while facing full-court pressure and never folded.

“My teammates trusted me,” Sikander said. “I knew that I played so much that in this moment I just had to just go take it.”

PG started slowly, falling behind 7-0 in the first couple of minutes, forcing Coach Villa to call a time out.

“We were frazzled, we were nervous,” Coach Villa said. “We were newbies, and I was a newbie, and so I started to panic when they started to panic. And that wasn’t good. Calling that time out, settling ourselves, settling with girls, and then my veterans, hey, you’ve got to control this. We have got to step up and just be calm, cool, collected, and play ball. And they came out, and they never looked back.”

Center Sutton Villa finally broke the scoreless streak with a layup at the 4:23 mark. Four points from Janiece Sikander and a 3-pointer from Nordstrom tied the game at 9 heading into the second period. The Vikings led 18-11 after opening on a 9-2 run and took a 20-15 advantage into halftime.

Janiece Sikander scored nine points in the third quarter, including 6 of 6 from the foul line, and a drive by senior Tabi Clark pushed the PG lead to 36-26 entering the final frame.

West got a basket to start the fourth to get within eight at 36-28 but the Vikings scored six straight (four from Sikander and the lob from Clark to Sutton Villa) for a 42-28 advantage with 2.18 to play, setting off the party in the stands from the Vikings faithful.

“Winning the state title, it means everything,” Clark said. “I’m just enjoying the moment. It’s crazy to think about how this program was the bottom of the bottom and now we’re on top. From the very beginning, our goal was to win the state championship. It was on the wall. It was everywhere and we all had the same mindset, we were going to be a state champion.”

Falatea led West (25-2) with 14 points but was just 6 for 21 from the field and 0 for 8 from the 3-point line.

“In the second half, we had the momentum,” Sikander said. “I feel like we did a good job of keeping that momentum. When we got the lob to Sutton, I was like, ‘OK, this is over.'”

The Vikings hadn’t been to the state finals in girls basketball since 2010, when 6-foot-7 Jennifer Hamson, who would go on to lead BYU to the Sweet 16 in basketball and the national finals in volleyball, was on the team.

“This is a big deal,” Coach Villa said. “We want to create a legacy at Pleasant Grove. I want the community to be involved in the girls basketball program. They’ve a very dedicated and loyal community.

“They’re loyal to me and I wanted the community to be proud of us. We’re not going to be just a one-and-done team. I plan to be here long after Sutton (her daughter) has gone. I want to be there for the long haul and I want to make the community proud.”