There were three nailbiters in the 3A girls basketball first round Saturday night and Region 9 teams were involved in two of them.

Cedar’s Lady Reds survived a 3-pointer attempt at the buzzer by Richfield to advance to the state quarterfinals in a No. 1 vs. No. 4 match-up. Pine View wasn’t as fortunate, dropping a heartbreaker at Carbon in another near-upset by the fourth-seeded team. The No. 3 seed from Region 9, Snow Canyon, fell hard at Juab. Here’s a roundup of the night’s action.

Cedar 40, Richfield 38

Courtney Morley hit the go-ahead basket with 10 seconds to play, then the :ady Reds survived a last-second trey attempt by Richfield to advance.

The Wildcats led by six early in the game, but by early in the third quarter, the Lady Reds had taken a 23-21 lead. The game was a barnburner the rest of the night. A Morley 3-pointer gave Cedar a 36-30 lead with three minutes left, but Richfield stormed back with six straight points on a basket by Madisyn Daniels and back-to-back scores by Shandi Bastian. Her second score made it 36-36 with under two minutes to play.

On the other end, Bastian fouled Cedar’s Morgan Myers. It was a huge play as it was the fifth foul for Bastian and it also sent Myers to the line, where she gave her team a 38-36 lead with 1:23 to play.

Caitlyn Natiby tied the score with under a minute left on a pair of free throws, setting up Morley’s heroics moments later.

Cedar, which was led by Javlyn Weaver’s 14 points, improves to 18-3 on the season. The Lady Reds will play Thursday at at 5:50 p.m. in the state quarterfinals against Morgan, which defeated Tooele 78-67 Saturday in Morgan.

The Wildcats, who got 11 points from Nabity, finish the year 5-17.

Stats: CHS 40, RHS 38

Carbon 50, Pine View 48

The Lady Panthers led throughout the second half and seemingly had the No.1-seeded Dinos on the ropes with an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter.

But Carbon, the Region 12 champ, rallied with a 7-0 run to cut it to one with under two minutes left. The Dinos took the lead in the final 30 seconds and a last-second shot attempt by the Lady Panthers was off the mark.

Pine View, which got 12 points from freshman phenom Claire Newby and 11 from post Sarrah Pierce, ends the year with a 10-8 record under first-year head coach Chris Brinagh. The Panthers have just one senior on the team (Amber Archibald, who had eight points Saturday) and should be a force to be reckoned with in 2015-16.

Carbon, which was led by Lindsay Blanc’s 13 points, improves to 16-7 on the year. The Dinos will battle Stansbury Thursday at 4:10 p.m. The Stallions beat Uintah with a 3-pointer in overtime Sarturday, 46-43.

Juab 59, Snow Canyon 32

It was a rough night all around for the Lady Warriors, who saw the game get away in a second quarter in which they were outscored 17-4.

Shaylee Reed was the only SC player to score more than six points as she had 12 for the Warriors. Snow Canyon was its own worst enemy at the free throw line, hitting just 10 of 30 charity shots.

Juab had four players reach double-figures in scoring and won all four quarters of the game. Rylee Bryan was tops on the list with 14 points.

After a terrible start to the season, the Lady Warriors were one of the hottest teams in the state over the last few weeks, going from 2-9 overall to 10-12 before Saturday’s road loss.

Juab, 15-6, advances to the state quarterfinals and will play Thursday at 9:10 p.m. against Bear River. The Lady Bears advanced with a 56-32 win over Union.

3A State Tournament Bracket (via UHSAA.org)

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